MMA Fighting - Kayla Harrison Reveals Hospital Visit Just Days Before UFC 307, Fires Back at Julianna Pena, Addresses Amanda Nunes and Plans for a Title Fight Next

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Kayla Harrison addresses her performance at UFC 307 and reveals she suffered through an infection that forced her to go to the hospital just days before her fight agianst Ketlen Vieira. She also discusses Julianna Pena refusing to say her name and plans for a title fight next  All this and more in an exclusive interview with Harrison after her win on Saturday Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is the number one band to win the sport. We still have ranked as the number one band to win in the sport. Tyler Knott and coming off a huge win over Ketland-Vierra at UFC 307. It is always my pleasure to speak to the great Kayla Harrison. Kayla, how are you? I'm good. I'm good.

Thank you. Thanks for still having me as number one. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, congratulations on the win. Let me just get it out of the way right now. You are always your own worst critic. Like you could go out there and knock out your opponent in 38 seconds. You're going to come in here and tell me I didn't do this.

I didn't do that. So just tell, just give me your opinion. I mean, listen, it was a dog, still a performance, but I know you. I know what you're going to say. So just tell me. How did you feel about the fight? I mean, I was just disappointed, you know, like obviously I go out there and I want to, first of all, I want to be exciting.

I want to, I want to dominate from bell to bell. And I always want to get a finish. So, yeah, I just felt like there was a lot of opportunities that I did. didn't really capitalize on. She was playing pretty defensive, pretty, what's the word I'm looking for, like safe. And so that also affected me going out there and implementing my game plan a little bit. But she also, I mean, kudos to her. She did a great job.

She stuffed a lot of my takedowns. She was well prepared. She had a great defense on the wall, which kind of prevented me from getting some of the takedowns that I usually like to get on the wall, caused a stalemate, which, which I hate, you know, I want to, I want to be in there, like, doing damage. I don't want to be stuck in a stalemate. But it's also like, I don't want to let her off the cage. So what do I do?

I mean, it's good. I have a lot of things to improve on. So I'm disappointed in my performance, but today is a new day and grateful for the opportunity to grow. I mean, we saw when you took her down when you started the ground and pound, you could tell, like, it seemed to me, and this is just my opinion, it seemed to me after you got that takedown. I think her focus shifted to just do not get taken. down again because it just went so, you know, obviously we know how dangerous you are on top.

I think that becomes the focus. Like, do whatever you can just don't get taken down. Yeah. No, for sure. After the first take down in the first round, I felt like in the second round, she wasn't opening up. And I mean, also to her credit, like I wasn't closing the distance well. My range was off that night. And I, can you go yell at them?

Sorry, my kids are fighting upstairs. tell them they're going to have to run a lap if they keep that up um and yeah so i mean she did a good job but also i there's a lot that i could have done better yeah did you i know listen i know you're never an excuse person but i i'm sure maybe you saw your manager ali abdela ziz's the great ali He said you had antibiotics or something. Were you sick going into Fight Week? Yeah. I mean, yeah.

He loved, I don't really like to make excuses. I had to go to the hospital last week. I had, there was like blood in my urine. And I had like a really bad infection that started like spreading. And so I was on antibiotics. I had blood in my urine. Like there was a bunch of stuff going on. but I mean, it's not an excuse, you know.

I have to be the best in the world on my worst day. Was there ever a moment where you contemplated pulling out of the fight? No. I have to ask the question. After 12 weeks of eating like air and prayers, no. Like I was going to, I was, we were going to find a way come hell or high water. And also just like everything I was on the line, you know? Like I'm not.

No. Listen, and again, I know you're not the excuse person, but if you're going to take away a positive, listen, a lot of people don't know, like when you're on antibiotics, that zaps you. Like, that absolutely zaps you being on antibiotics. To go out there and still 30, 27, the number two fighter in the UOC, like, again, I know you're not happy, but you got to be happy on some level because that's just not, with all you were dealing with, that's still pretty damn good. Thank you.

I mean, listen, I'm grateful that I got the win. and I was able to go out there and, you know, still get the W. But other than that, like, I just, I'm eager to get back to the gym. I have a lot of things that I want to improve on. And I know that this fight is really going to help me grow. Just even outside of the cage, like, some of the decisions I made, like, it's going to be good for me. I ate too much, I think. Like, after I weighed in, I was like, I was just so hungry.

I think I overdid it. Like, I felt kind of sick on Saturday. because I ate too much. And so I need to do a better job of staying disciplined even after I weigh in. You know, like I need to follow the game plan. Like there's no, yeah, there's a lot of stuff I can improve on. You said on Saturday that's the first time you've ever bled in a fight.

When was the last time? Because I think people forget, like when you're in judo, you do get a lot of head clashes and you do bang. When was the last time you remember bleeding in a match? How long has it been? Oh, my gosh. that's got to be like maybe 20 2010 2009 like it's been a long time yeah people always say you're always like what are you going to do when you get hit hey to or crick not that you go into

looking to get hit you took an elbow and you just went trucking on so I mean listen once a question dude that was one thing like first of all it's always hard to train elbows and sparring you know like you want to be careful with your training partners you want to take care of them so one great thing about the UFC is I get to throw elbows but that also means I can get hit with elbows and it like just grazed my nose just right and so my nose was just like poor in blood and yeah it was good for me I think that um if every fight is easy then when you get to the hard fights you you don't trust yourself. So not that I would never trust myself. Like I know how tough I am. I know that I have the ability to dig deep and always find a way. But yeah, I think that it's not a bad thing that I had

to overcome some adversity on Saturday night. Your toughest fight, your toughest fight, and it's a 3027 decision. Just saying, that's still pretty good. Afterwards, we all knew this was a number one contenders fight. You win, you get the title shot. You were backstage. Obviously, I'll talk to you about the camera moment, which don't get me started there. So I assume you were watching Raquel and Juliana from the back. So give me your thoughts on the fight, and I'll be honest with you watching it. I had Raquel winning. I don't know.

I'm not saying it to knock anybody, but how did you feel? I didn't get to see everything. I was finishing up media, so I think I missed the first round. But I also had it going Raquel's way. And then I looked on the MMA. decisions.com or whatever it is, you know, the one where it shows you. And like every single journalist had it for Raquelin. I've never seen that where all of you guys agree. Like I was very, I was surprised. So and I think it's kind of like an unspoken rule in our sport, right? Like you

don't steal the title. You got to like take the title. So, um, I feel bad for Rocky. You know, she's, she's quiet. She's a humble champion. But like she's a champ and to have it. taken like that has got to be tough. You, listen, we said beforehand, you know, it didn't matter to you who was champion. You were going to put your elbow through whoever, but you admitted it would be a little bit more satisfying to get Juliana. But let me ask you just the honest question.

I feel like I know your answer. Were you impressed at all by Juliana's performance, what you saw to her? No, I mean, I just, no. And like not to talk shit. I know that we're going to get into plenty of that soon enough. I just don't see any growth. I haven't, like, since the fight with Amanda,

I don't see a ton of progress. That's just my personal opinion. She's tough as hell, though. Like, I'll give her that. She's tough as nails, you know? Yeah. I mean, she got knocked down the fourth round credit to her for coming back. But, yeah, it was weird.

And the moments when she had her back, like, you think that's where she would take over. And even then, like, she didn't really, she had one brief moment where she kind of came close. I think it was a neck crank, but that was pretty much it. Yeah. I just think stylistically I'm a nightmare for her. You know, that's like a, that's rough. Yeah. So you knew the moment. So USC comes backstage with the camera. They don't do this very often, by the way. So like you know what they're doing.

Julian is getting her post fight. I didn't know. I saw the camera was there for all five rounds. And like he was just kind of chilling there. And I and then I realized why he was chilling there. And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. So they're doing the post-fight interview. You know what's coming. There, you know, it's all there. And then, and I'm sure you saw Daniel Cormey. It was like, she dropped the ball. Like, how do you not, they got Kela on screen. How do you not acknowledge that? Yeah, she dropped the ball. I get it. I understand. Listen, I understand she wants to Amanda fight, but Amanda's retired. And I said this in a column today. Even if she comes out of retirement today, it's still six months of drug testing before she can actually fight. That's assuming she's coming back. So, I don't know, we saw your reaction, but now you've had like a day or so to think about it. What was your thought on that whole situation where she calls out Amanda just doesn't acknowledge you? I mean, I think that that just kind of speaks volumes, you know, like, then she says like, oh, I'm not calling out Amanda. Like, I'm scared. I'm like, no, honey, I just have a plan, you know, like, I want to beat you up and then I want to beat Amanda up. Like I just think it I think that she's intimidated you know and when the truth don't work they

you know she's got to say I'm on steroids she's got to say that she wasn't impressed she's got to say that Amanda's the bigger fight like she's just going to keep making excuses um I can just control me you know I'm ready to fight I want to fight I want to fight for the title um and I hope that that happens I thought it was kind of a weird thing to say you didn't call out Amanda because we've talked about Amanda but it kind of got to the point you know this from all the interviews we do it got to the point where I stopped asking about Chris Cyborg because I'm just like it's pointless it's not happening we just can't keep repeating the same question and say with Amanda like I know you want the Amanda fight but she is retired right now we don't

know she's going to fight again well it also just like makes me look like an asshole eventually when everyone's like do you want to and like I'm like yeah I want and Amanda's like dude leave me the fuck, you know, she's like, shut up. Like, leave me alone. It's not personal for me. Like, of course I want to fight Amanda. I have great respect for everything that she's accomplished in this sport. And to me, there's no higher honor than saying, like, I want what you have.

If some 20-year-old girl walked into ATT tomorrow and said to me, like, I'm going to beat your ass someday, I would be like, what? Like, yes, let's go, you know? Like, that's the kind of energy. want you know um so yeah i'm not going to call amanda out i'm definitely not going to call amanda out until i have the title um and then when i feel like i've done that i'm going to build the biggest fight in women's mma history but until then i'm i'm calling for that title you said you believe and i think a lot of people agree that you are the nightmare matchup for juliana is juliana

that, I assume not, but is Juliana that kind of fight for you? Because I'll be honest, Kayla, like when they came in day one with Holly, I was like, man, Holly is a tough fight on day one. Because we said Holly has a good takedown defense. We obviously know the history of Rhonda didn't turn out that way. You took her down and submitted her inside two rounds. I think there are people who argue maybe Ketlin was a tougher fight. So where do you, like, do you believe Julianne is, she's a champion?

Credit to her, you know, credit to her being the champ. But is she actually the toughest fight for you in this division? I think everyone's a tough fight. You know, I think that now we're in the highest levels of the sport. We're talking about the best of the best, and they've been around for a long time. They're seasoned. They've been through wars. Like, we're not, we're not talking about, we're talking about the best of the best.

So everyone is a tough fight. Stylistically, I think that probably Juliana is an easier fight for me than Ketlin. Probably Juliana is an easier fight for me than Raquel. But again, like, I think I'm the best in the world. I believe I'm the best in the world. So I'm the tough fight. Yeah, absolutely. One thing, listen, when you came to this division, everyone,

whoever I spoke to everyone and said, Kayla Harrison is exactly what this division needed. Because once Amanda was gone, and we've all said, I said like eight times last week, look at my Twitter. I think I tweet like nine times last week. You were exactly what this division needed. One thing I loved about you, though, when you left PFL and came to UFC,

you never went low. never said anything bad about your former organization. You made a lot of money there. They treated you well. But I got to ask you because Dana addressed this Saturday night when he's, I'm sure you saw Dana's comments when they put out the tweet promoting Larissa's win over you right before, you know, your fight. Can I just ask your opinion on that situation and how you feel about, you know, and

even afterwards, I think Don Davis tweeted like, oh, now I know for sure the PFL's division, women's division is better than UFC. And I'm just like banging my head against the desk. How do you feel? because I don't think you've really said anything bad about PFL outside of that one Kevin Durant comment, which was kind of odd and awkward. But you've kind of taken the high road. You haven't really said much about them.

Yeah. I mean, I just don't have, I don't have much to say, you know, like I operate from a place of gratitude. And I grew up in that organization. I didn't, you know, I was able to financially provide for my family. I have financial abundance. Like I grew so much there. I'm grateful for what we, what I believe I helped build over there.

Like I feel like I was a big part of that and I take pride in that. But I just don't have time for that kind of negativity and that kind of like those day, like I don't care. Like I'm staying in my lane. I'm doing my thing. I'm chasing my dreams. And like if anybody has a problem with that, I've said it very clearly before.

Like they can go fuck themselves. But I'm not going to. I don't have anything bad to say. Like you want to talk shit about me losing a fight? Like, go ahead. I think my reaction was just, it's disappointing. Like it just, I understand it's promotion, but it's just like, come on. Like, you know, like you were a huge part.

Like, you know, take the high road, you know, just congratulations on all your success. I just don't see a need for that. I get it. I understand. Just like Dana said, go for it, do whatever you're going to do. But, yeah, that was my reaction. I was just disappointed. It just didn't see a need for it.

Yeah. And I think that, yeah, that's why I don't have to say anything because that kind of like, those choices speak for themselves, you know, like I'm not, I'm not going to go low. I'm not going to talk shit. I'm not going to say a bunch of stuff that I could say and air a bunch. You know, I'm not going to do that because there's no point. Like, that's not who I am as a person. That's not the kind of business that I want to do. That's not what I want to be known for. So I'll just keep my head down, work hard. You want to talk. about me, go ahead. It seems like you are happy with your ultimate decision, though. You are happy in the UFC. They're treating you well. Dana speaks well about you. And it seems like you are, this was the move.

This was the right move for your career. Absolutely. I have no doubts. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. So before I get you out of here, obviously you're literally one day removed from a fight. Outside, I see you got a little bit of black eye. Health-wise, okay, coming out of the fight? like in terms of like nothing else?

Yeah, no, I'm good. Honestly, it was just, I really think that this is all from the elbow. I don't remember. I have to watch the fight one more time, but I didn't get hit too much. So, yeah, no, no health issues. Yeah, I'm good. Do you have an ideal time in mind for the Giuliana fight? We all know that's going to happen, whether she wants to acknowledge it or not.

And again, to her credit, I think at the end of her presser, she said if she doesn't get a man to i will gladly fight cali so i'll give her credit for that she did say that when they asked the question um the downside is with juliana as we said before the fight is the timing because she was out for two years over two years like i don't know i don't want to wait too i'm not waiting two years you know like i think i need it i'd also need a little bit of time to recover from the weight cut just because it is like um you know i lose half of me every time but I'm ready whenever you know they I'm ready whenever

I will make myself ready it's it's wild because when you walked out to the presser on Thursday and then even the way and it was like I was like listen you may have the best game face because I know it's not an easy weight cut we've talked about I know it's not an easy weight cut but I'm just like it's amazing how good you looked and how like healthy you said

I know it's not easy but you but you put wear a great game face because I was like I don't think she looks I don't think she looks depleted at all that's also the hair and makeup lady doing work in their like magic wand because i am like i am dead inside but you came to their own fight night and did it that's the thing that's that's what it matters most right yeah the recovery i mean my team that's kudos to my team you know everyone from mike anderson and maco to eric pania dara from platinum plate like the team behind the team you know we have crystal here

rebecca ali like everyone at tt ritchie primo like everyone plays a a really big role in getting me to where I am. And that's another reason why I'm so hard on myself, you know, because like these people sacrifice so much in order for me to chase my dreams. Like Anderson has a family and he was here for two weeks with me ahead of time to train. Like Mike is here. He, you know, and so I want to do them proud and I want to do like be work, like they just, they give a lot and I'm so grateful for them for every single person on my team. and like my mom coming to stay with the kids. Like it's not easy and it takes a village.

And so I want to make all of them proud. So I got to go get that belt for them. Well, I think 2025 is going to be the time, you know, two fights in, two and oh. We all know what's next. I don't need to tease it anymore. It's going to be you and Juliana in 2025. I think you said you're going to take a little time with the kids, enjoy some downtime.

I hope enjoy the holidays. I think that's probably going to be important for you. now that you got your fight in, enjoy the holidays. Maybe come home here to Ohio at some point. Yeah, definitely coming home, baby. I always, I was actually when they announced you on Saturday, and I know they always do it, like fighting out of coconut creek. Like, at some point, can we throw out a shout-out to Ohio?

You know what is so funny as I was like, I heard that because the first time they said out of Coconut Creek, but I heard in other fights that Bruce sometimes says out of what-a-what-a-bye-of. and so I'm going to ask, I'm going to ask them, like, hey, can you put by way of Middletown, Ohio, please? Yeah, you're a, you're a, you're a Buckeye, you're a Buckeye forever, so. Oh, H. I know, I love it. Kayla, congratulations on the win, amazing performance.

Again, I know you're going to be tough on yourself, but that wasn't, like I said, on your, on what was, you're saying is not your best night, you still 3027, the number two girl in the world. You cannot be upset about that. Incredible win. I'm, I'm so excited for the Juliana Pena fight. have no idea. Can you just see it like in my eyes how excited I am for this? I can. Thank you, my friend. I'm excited too. I'm going to go out there and make some magic. Well, enjoy a little downtime, have fun with the kids, enjoy vacation. And next time we talk, I feel like it's going to be

talking Juliana Pena and UFC title. Let's go, baby. Talk to you soon. All right. Thanks, Damon. Bye-bye. Bye.