Midnight Mania: Kayla Harrison Signed For UFC 300!?!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Kayla Harrison’s career in the Professional Fighter’s League (PFL) has come to an end.

Earlier on Tuesday night (Jan. 23, 2024), UFC CEO Dana White announced that the promotion had signed Harrison, the two-time Judo Olympic gold medalist and former PFL champion. She’s set to make her UFC debut on April 13 at UFC 300, facing former Bantamweight queen Holly Holm in a high-profile bout at 135 pounds.

Watch White’s announcement below:

There’s actually a lot to consider with this match up. First and foremost, the weight class is a really surprising change of pace. Holm has fought most of her career at Bantamweight, but she also has jumped up to 145-pounds on a few occasions. Harrison, conversely, has only made 145-pounds once in her 17-fight professional career! She’s fought almost entirely at 155-pounds, so she’s facing a 20 pound adjustment here.

Holm does feel like a perfect opponent for Harrison’s debut. She remains one of women’s Bantamweight’s best-known names, and there’s obvious history and parallels to draw given Holm kicked a different Judo Olympian in the face many years ago. Given the lackluster Bantamweight title fight a few days ago at UFC 297, this is a much-needed injection of an exciting new contender … if Harrison can make the weight!

A final factor to consider is how this affects the ongoing PFL vs. Bellator champion match ups. Harrison is not the most recent PFL Lightweight champion — that would be Larissa Pacheco, who defeated Harrison in November 2022 but also lost to Harrison twice previously — but she was a frontrunner to face Bellator Featherweight queen Cris Cyborg anyway. There’s been a lot of hype over the years for that potential match up, but it’s officially gone for the foreseeable future.

January 23, 2024