Kayla Harrison is one of the most accomplished athletes in combat sports, known first for her dominance in judo and now for her career in MMA and the UFC. Harrison made history as the first American to win Olympic gold in judo, capturing the top prize at both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Kayla Harrison hit rock bottom
But after reaching the pinnacle of her sport, Harrison faced a difficult transition. “After the 2016 games, I knew I was done with judo. Before I even went to my last Olympics, I was burnt out, ready to be done,” Harrison explained.
The abrupt end to her judo career left her adrift. “After the games, I suffered kind of like a post-Olympic depression. I went from being super focused and never hitting the snooze button to not even setting an alarm. I didn’t even have a Netflix account, and then all of a sudden, I had watched everything there was to watch on Netflix.”
Harrison described a period of uncertainty and emptiness, despite the outward appearance of an active social life. “You want to talk about couch potato – there was like an indent of me in my couch. I was drinking a lot and going to all these parties, doing a bunch of cool stuff, but I just felt really sad and kind of empty. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
MMA
The turning point came when a friend invited her to a striking class in Boston. “I went. I loved it. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m back in my body. This feels good.’ So I kept going back.” That first class marked the beginning of Harrison’s journey in MMA, where she quickly found a new sense of purpose.
“About a month after I started doing the striking classes, I went to my first sparring session. This little 105-pound chick front-teeped me to the face, and I went flying back. I was like, ‘What the hell was that?’ That was it – I was hooked. I was like, ‘All right, we’re doing it.’ I always thought MMA was cool, but I was a little bit scared, like most normal humans. It is a scary thing to do, and it is absolutely insane when you really get down to brass tacks. You get locked in a cage, and someone tries to hurt you. It’s pretty nuts.”
Kayla Harrison signed with the Professional Fighters League and became a dominant force, winning two PFL lightweight championships and building an undefeated record for much of her early MMA career. Her success in the PFL drew attention from the wider MMA community, and in 2024, she made her highly anticipated debut in the UFC.
Kayla Harrison in the UFC
Kayla Harrison will challenge Julianna Peña for the UFC women’s bantamweight title in the co-main event of UFC 316 on June 7, 2025, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. This bout marks Harrison’s first UFC title shot after her successful transition from Olympic judo and PFL championships to the UFC, where she has already secured notable wins over athletes such as Holly Holm and others.
Now, Kayla Harrison is preparing for her first UFC title fight in just a few weeks. The struggles she faced after the Olympics have given her a new perspective.
