From the day that the shocking news leaked that Kayla Harrison had signed a contract with the UFC and would compete as a bantamweight, one question followed her: How will she possibly make the division's 135-pound championship limit. Harrison was 33 when she debuted at UFC 300 on April 13 against Holly Holm after a sensational career in the PFL. She won gold medals in judo at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, each time competing at 78 kilograms.
That's 171.96 pounds, which is nowhere near close to bantamweight. In the PFL, Harrison fought 15 of her 16 bouts in the PFL at lightweight. She fought Aspen Ladd at a 150-pound catchweight in the PFL and she had one bout in Invicta at featherweight.
So when she signed a UFC contract, the question was how she'd make even the 136-pound non-title limit. She did that easily, even if in the final hours before the weight cut she was barely recognizable.
That, thus, is no longer a story line heading into her No. 1 contender's bout with Ketlen Vieira on Saturday on the main card of UFC 307 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Her reason for signing with the UFC was to win a championship, and she's the back-up for the co-main event, a title bout between champion Raquel Pennington and former champion Julianna Peña. If either of them are forced to pull out, Harrison will step in to compete in the main event. But if not, she'll fight Vieira in a bout in which the winner will almost certainly face the Pennington-Peña winner.
Vieira is a highly accomplished athlete in her own right, and in addition to being a black belt in both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and judo, she's 14-3 and has won three of her last four. She dropped a split decision to Pennington in Las Vegas on Jan. 14, 2023.
Harrison is eager to test herself against a well-rounded opponent like Vieira. Vieira has wins over former champions Holm and Miesha Tate and has also beaten the likes of Sara McMann and Cat Zingano.
"She's a good fighter," Harrison said of Vieira. "She's well-round. Obviously, that jiu-jitsu background, but I'm excited to see someone with a judo black belt inside the cage. That should make for an interesting time. But I'm just better everywhere. Everyone's tough until you beat them, but this is my time. I'm peaking. I'm more experienced than I ever was. Now, I'm a faster, stronger, more powerful fighter and, yeah, it's my time."
She's one of 12 UFC fighters to have won Olympic medals and one of four, along with wrestlers Henry Cejudo (Beijing 2008), Kevin Jackson (Barcelona 1992) and Mark Schultz (Los Angeles 1984) to have won gold. Harrison is the only two-time medalist to have ever competed in the UFC.
She's clearly got the athletic genes, and she won the PFL lightweight tournament in both 2019 and 2021.
She's more confident now going into the Vieira fight than she was at UFC 300 against Holm because the weight cut has been handled. When she signed with the UFC, she said she had done several practice cuts and had made it, but it's different when one has to do it preparing with the stress of a competition the next day hanging over her.
It was a lot of weight to shed, but she was just as athletic and powerful against Holm at UFC 300 as she was at any point in her career, and she feels that will make her better this time around.
"Before UFC 300, a lot of the fear was that this was a very faith-based decision," Harrison said. "I hadn't weighed 135 pounds since I was 16 years old. I felt really called to be here and that this is what I was supposed to do and so I did it not knowing if it would work out or not.
"This time around, the fear is more just kind of like, what's the word I'm looking for, is just expectation. I know how hard it is going to be now. I'm dreading it. I know how much it sucks. It's kind of a mental battle and I'm preparing myself for this mental ... battle and really practicing surrendering and acceptance of, 'This is what it is.' Anything worth having in life usually takes a lot of sacrifice and sometimes [doing] a lot of things we don't want to do. The fear and anticipation are different this time around, and it's just having faith and trust."
Her faith and trusted are clearly buoyed by her performance against Holm, when she turned in a near-flawless performance against the former champion and submitted her with a rear naked choke in the second round.
And if, as expected, she gets it done against Vieira, her work won't be over for the night. Then, she'll make her way to cageside to catch a close-up glimpse of the Pennington-Peña title fight.
That's when this dream will really begin to get real for her.
Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images
Kayla Harrison (top) finishes Holly Holm with ground-and-pound in their women's bantamweight bout at UFC 300.