Kayla Harrison now a UFC champion with a mega to come

Newark, NJ (AP) – Around her neck or around her size, Kayla Harrison has a talent for winner.

A key distinction, of course, between the Olympic Games and the Mixed Professional Martial Arts is what is happening immediately after a monumental victory – there is no waiting of four years for the next fight.

The next challenger is ready for confrontation inside the MMA cage.

Harrison had barely a few minutes to cool off after a dominant submission victory earned him the 135 pound championship – in front of a full house that understood President Donald Trump And the former boxer Mike Tyson – when she called the former champion apparently retired and enthroned from the UFC 2025 renowned temple, Amanda Nunes.

“I see you Amanda! Come on, Amanda,” yelled Harrison from the cage.

Nunes came out of his retirement and in the scrum, the two former training partners hugged their hands and exchanged some jokes before the fighters hit a fierce and stardedown pose.

Just a little something for the poster.

“It was tall”, The president of the UFC Dana White said.

The moment was indeed likely to kick off for something special, another super fight for Harrison in a career sprinkled with them on different combat disciplines, combat promotions – almost always with the same result.

Harrison’s hand raised in victory.

“All I wanted is to happen,” she said.

Her biggest reward, in adulthood full of professional triumphs, came to the UFC 316 on Saturday evening at the Prudential Center when she made the 135 pound champion Julianna Peña left at the end of the second round to win a championship during her third UFC fight.

She is used to proving She is champion at the highest levelFrom the Cage Olympic Games, leaving only destruction in its wake.

No American judoka – man or woman – had never won a Olympic gold medal Before Harrison, Gemma Gibbons British to win the 78 kilograms female division at the London 2012 Olympic Games. She again won gold four years later at the Janeiro Rio Games and made her debut in MMA in 2018.

Harrison, 34, was a double price champion at $ 1 million in the Professional fighter league Division of light championships before moving on to the UFC last year. She won her first two UFC fights and her record – now a sparkling 19-1 in MMA overall – coupled with her renown of her a competitor for an instant title shot.

Through all this, Harrison has been opened on the years of physical and mental violence inflicted by a former coach leading to the Olympic Games. She was the victim of a teenage girl, revealing that she even thought of leaving judo and suicide. Harrison turned to his deep faith – “I trust God” – who stabilized him along the way and she wrote a book on recognition and overcome trauma.

It is transformed into a kind of defender of mistreatment, and as the best active MMA fighter continues to make his way in the eyes of the public, Harrison is expressed with frankness and without shame on his experience.

“I am well withdrawn,” she said. “I am no longer this 10 -year -old girl, this 16 -year -old girl. I’m an adult now. I have the impression that God gave me this story for a reason. It’s my job to use it to try to make the world better. I want to talk about it. “

Harrison has taken off from statistics on children’s mistreatment and noted: “It’s just children who say something.”

“How do we stop this?” Stop him by having a conversation, “said Harrison. “We stop looking at him in the eyes and putting a face there.”

This face is now one of an elite MMA champion.

“I never want another little girl or a little boy feeling alone, feeling dirty, to be ashamed,” said Harrison. “There is hope. There is a brilliant gold medal at the end of the tunnel. There is a UFC belt at the end of the tunnel.”

Harrison has done a quick job of Peña – who is the author of one of the great upheavals in the history of the UFC when she amazed nulls for the belt in 2021 – to add another championship to her combat collection.

Harrison took a page from his judo career before the fight and bowed to Trump as a sign of respect. White, Trump’s long -standing ally, set the belt around Harrison’s size inside the cage and encouraged him to say hello to the president.

She jumped from the cage and draped her belt on Trump’s shoulder when he was standing from his seat by the cage. They kissed and she posed for photos with the president and her entourage.

“The President of the United States gives me a kiss on my cheek and I am like, saint (cow),” said Harrison. “And then Mike Tyson is there!” I’m like, am I in a movie right now? What’s going on?

Later, she launched a White House trip as he is customary for other sport champions.

Harrison seemed that she preferred to cring through another exhausting weight cut than to answer which path was harder, winning Olympic gold or a title of MMA. She conceded that choosing a winner was like choosing a favorite child, before noting: “I have no favorite children.”

Harrison, of course, is proud to have lived her dream from MMA as a single mom and threatened in a fun way to scold her daughter and her son if they were standing after midnight to watch her go to work.

The tragedy struck in late 2019 when Harrison’s mother had a stroke and his stepfather died months later, leaving the young niece and the nephew of Harrison without a tutor (her sister had come out of the photo).

Harrison became an instant goalkeeper – and a mother when she finally adopted the two children.

And that, Harrison vs nunes in the main event of a Pay-Per-View of the UFC?

“I’m a mom,” said Harrison laughing. “The sooner you put me on the card, the better.”

Nunes, who left the title of 135 pounds when she retired in 2023, is not currently in the UFC drug testing basin. She needs at least six months of random screening tests before being able to compete.

It is a minor hiccups and only builds media and anticipation for combat.

“We will certainly see each other in the future,” Nunes in Harrison told Nunes inside the cage.

Harrison hit the UFC championship belt that rested on a press conference table and realized that it meant much more than a polished gold that was just wrapped around his waist. What awaits us for Harrison – a super fight, of greater wealth, perhaps even a trip to the White House – turns out what she endured during her trip to the establishment of her claim as the best in the world.

“I have the impression that my mind is unbreakable and that my faith is unshakable,” she said. “Who I am as a person is someone I am proud of. Yes, this belt is incredible. But the trip to get here is what matters most to me. ”

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