Brutal Weight Cut Made Harrison ‘More Violent’

Former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm expected UFC newcomer Kayla Harrison to “work hard” to make weight for their UFC 300 showdown, which takes place as part of the “Pereira vs. Hill” pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. night (April 13, 2024) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It certainly looked like hard work.

Harrison insists the process was not as daunting as it appeared, despite this video, and was part of a larger transformation from PFL lightweight champion to UFC bantamweight contender. In fact, dropping all the way down to 135 pounds made the two-time Olympic gold medalist “more violent.”

“This [experience] has built me and shaped me and molded me into an even more evolved, higher-operating version of myself,” Harrison, 33, said on UFC’s official weigh-in show. “The sacrifice, the stress. When you’re cutting weight, heat acclamation, you’re sitting in a sauna three times a week by yourself, with your thoughts. You’re doing extra cardio, you’re taking long walks, you’re on the bike for 90 minutes. You’re hungry. It’s like a different kind of hungry, and you’re sitting with your thoughts, and it makes you more violent.”

Speaking of violence, Harrison (16-1) has 12 finishes in 16 wins.

“I’ve just never really played easy or played it safe,” Harrison continued. “I feel like I’ve had a lot of success in my MMA career, I’ve been very blessed financially, I am happy with everything that I’ve done in my life. I’m a world champion, a two-time Olympic champion, I’ve won every tournament there is to win in judo, I’ve gotten plenty of money in the bank. But when I started MMA, the goal was to be UFC champion. And I had a year to think about if that was still my goal — and it is. I want to be UFC champion and I want to give it my all, and whatever happens, I’m okay with it. But I know I’m going to be UFC champion.”

Not if the current champ has anything to say about it (and she does).

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