Kayla Harrison now has UFC and PFL titles on her mantle, and a surging PFL fighter, with a Judo base himself, has credited Harrison’s skill base from Judo as something that has paid dividends for her MMA successes. Appearing on MMA Canada, Karim Henniene covered several subjects ahead of his first walk into the Smart Cage at PFL Africa 1 on July 19th, including mentioning coming into mixed martial arts from a Judo base.
Preparing to fight in the PFL smart cage and referencing a multi-time Olympic gold medalist in Judo as well as a former multi-time PFL champion, ‘The Kryptonian’ was asked for his thoughts on Harrison’s championship win over Julianna Pena at UFC 316, as Henniene said,
“I feel like Judo is really underrated, you know. Like I don’t see any MMA gym that is offering Judo. Like Judo is really underrated. Because when I like clinch with someone, they’re all a white belt to me. I don’t care if you did Wrestling, you did Greco Roman, you did whatever, Muay Thai, the clinch of Judo is the strongest, most definitely. Like you can even see it from the Royce Gracies, all the greats have the Judo. When we get into a clinch, we definitely have a big advantage. So yeah, I think Kayla Harrison have a big advantage from her Judo.”
“Every time that they will get into a clinch situation, we will always have an advantage. It doesn’t matter if they did like a thousand years of Muay Thai or Wrestling. From the upper body, we will always have an advantage especially against someone who never did Judo. So yeah, I think it’s a big factor that I have a Judo background.”
PFL Champion and ATT Teammate on Kayla Harrison’s UFC title victory
The positive sentiments for the former PFL champion becoming a UFC titleholder earlier this Summer also came from a current PFL champion who prepares to fight this weekend. Dakota Ditcheva (ahead of her Sumiko Inaba clash at PFL Africa 1 in the co-main event) has also praised the title-winning efforts of Kayla Harrison and how the unassailably solid work ethic of the decorated judoka has informed Harrison’s successes in another combat sport.
Getting into her thoughts on Harrison now becoming a multi-promotion champion in MMA, Ditcheva stated [via MMA Fighting],
“Yeah, it’s crazy. I’ve actually got goosebumps when you think about it. Like her journey through MMA, or just through martial arts sport has been crazy. After she won out there was loads of things online, I was just reading it all because, for me, a journey like that. Olympic gold medalist, comes to PFL, cleans everyone out there. Goes to UFC, cleans everyone out there. Within two or three fights, she’s got the UFC belt.”
“That journey that she’s been on is absolutely crazy. The weight cuts, the dedication she’s got to training, when she’s saying in these interviews, she’s not missed a day running or biking, that girl is in the gym every morning, every afternoon, and between them sessions, she’s walking, she’s running.”
“She’s the hardest worker in that gym. So to have someone like that around us and set such an example like that for us girls in the gym is like second to none. That’s why we’re the best, best gym in the world because we’ve got examples like that around us. How can we not be inspired and want to keep working hard when we see people like Kayla Harrison doing that?”
