MMA Fighting - Reaction | Kayla Harrison Signs Multi-Year Extension With PFL

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

Kayla Harrison is no longer a free agent as she has signed a multi-year extension to remain with the PFL. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed Meshew react to the news, discuss the impact it has on both Harrison and the promotion, how it could be a major hit for Bellator in the long run, thoughts on how Dana White will react to it from the UFC's perspective, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Black Friday. IKEA. Bring home to life. Good morning, everybody. Mike Huck here from MMAfighting.com. And some big news to start off your Tuesday. It is now officially official. Kayla Harrison, one of the biggest free agents in the sport of mixed martial arts,

is a free agent no more. She has signed a multi-year extension with the PFL. PFL has to be relieved. I'm sure Kayla Harrison is relieved that this is now a done deal. Five months after winning another lightweight title and another million dollars, she's going to go for another one in this 2022 season. So credit to Ariel Hawani. He has been all over this from the beginning.

he reported last week that Harrison returning to the PFL was all but done, expected to be made official rather quickly, and that is what has happened officially on this Tuesday morning. This has been quite the road for Kayla Harrison drawing interest from anybody and everybody to nobody surprised getting offers from the UFC, getting offers from Bellator, the PFL. Then it looks like her return to the PFL is imminent along this road. Then some roadblocks.

And then Bellator becomes a major. player in this conversation. UFC was pretty much out of it by all accounts, down the stretch. Bellator offered her a big contract. PFL matches it. And here we are. So let us react to this right now. And I am not alone on this, as you can see.

I'm being joined by a couple of my colleagues. We got Alexander K. Lee. We got Mr. Jed K. Michoud, aka, I will begin with you, my best friend. When this all began, this free agency talk, which pretty much started during the this last season for the PFL. The whole season, it was all about where is she going to go after this? This has to be here last season of the PFL, right?

And everyone kind of let their imaginations run wild. Kayla and the UFC versus Amanda Nunes. Kayla and Bellator versus Chris Cyborg, the bigger names are in the other promotions. The chance to cement her legacy to build her resume with Hall of Fame talent was in other promotions outside of the PFL. But also, she had to make the best decision for herself, for her family,

her bank account. She is a mom now. Are you surprised that this is how the free agency road ended from where it began? No, no, not surprised. Not surprised. I think a lot of us once, I mean, as soon as we knew her free agency was coming up, I feel like we were discussing this even, you know, before the season was over, talking about what would be next for her and oh, man, you know, matchups with Cyborg, matches with the men of Nunes and whoever. But we also, I think every time we kind of speculated about that and, you know, kind of played fantasy matchmaker for her, there was always like a but there was always a but if she wants to you know continue to to find success and and make money pfl will always be her best option there's just that that one million

dollars waiting for her uh assuming she wins which i mean again going to every season however many more um you know we know it's a multi-year extension however many more pfl seasons she participates in she will be the massive favorite going in unless they they managed to bring in a cyborg or they somehow bring in amenna nunez otherwise it's pretty much four fights and another million dollars for Kayla Harrison. And, you know, that's, that's, that's, that's great for her. But, uh, you know, she was kind of talking about it in the MMA hour, even, even herself. She's kind of, one, she kind of grew frustrated with the free agent process, which was very exciting at first. And then she, you know, as it dragged on, she was just kind of

wanted to get over with. And two, without saying, without like explicitly saying it, she was kind of suggesting like, man, how much, you know, what's it going to take for me to really cement my legacy and sort of can it happen in the PFL? These are my work. These are my words, I just say. Can it happen in the PFL? So definitely not a surprise, though, that she ended up coming back. They had the rights to match. Why wouldn't they want to bring her back?

It'd be crazy. She's their biggest star. And so now we'll see what she can do. But I think this was always a likely outcome, despite the fact that we knew there was interest from Belator and from the UFC. And it's all been out there in the public. But PFL is her home, and we have to get used to it. Chad, you and I have been talking about this for a bit on multiple shows.

We both thought a return to the PFL was probably what was going to happen. In fact, we both felt that this is probably the best move for her overall in terms of just making that bag, as you like to say, in terms of making that money, set herself up for the future. Still be a major name in the sport, still be a star, but you don't have to take on like the stiffest of competitions. You can just keep that O and just keep banking that Millie. So now that it's a done deal, do you feel the same? What is your reaction to this now that it's official? Oh, man, I got a lot of thoughts. And I don't, they're kind of pulling me in a lot of different directions because you're right.

We've talked about this a lot. This is what I expected, but it's also not what I expected, right? Because we talked about it. I thought she was coming back for one year. You know, get that bag. She's still young, only 31. She can get a little bit more time to develop a little bit more. PFL did just bring in Julia Budd.

That's been kind of the hallmark I've been attached to, is that that is a big legacy fight for her, Julia Bud at 145. So there's that fight there for her, but beyond that, there's not much, but she can fight Julia Bud, get that Millie, keep stacking that paper, baby. Best job in sports is to be the PFL Women's Lightweight Champion,

as far as I'm concerned. But this is a multi-year deal, apparently. And correct me if I'm wrong, but that is that that's what I, what I'm seeing from MMAFighting.com, the best website in the whole entire world. So that is very shocking to me because that makes it interesting. You know, even if that's two years as opposed to one, that's less time for her to potentially get a Chris Cyborg fight. You know, Kayla probably has a long career or at least several more years ahead of her, but Chris Cyborg been in the game for a long time,

not sure how long she wants to stay around. And that's obviously the big hallmark fight for her outside of coming to the UFC. So the multi-year deal aspect of it is really interesting to me. And frankly, it makes me think that PFL is going to get Chris Cyborg because I believe Ariel was talking about it yesterday on the MMA hour. Cyborg has either one fighter or she's pretty close to the end of her Belator contract. at which point, what is there for Cyborg and Bellator either? You know, like this is the fight that's supposed to happen.

And so if PFL has re-signed Kayla for however much money it is, I'm starting, this makes me think that they know something, that they are going to end up either making a really strong push for Cyborg when she comes up as a free agent again, or they're going to be willing to co-promote with Bellator. Either way, the big loser today, is Scott Coker and Bellatory MMA because they had a chance

and they fumbled the bag, man. They fumbled it so, so hard. Excuse me, that's an interesting point. And so let me ask you this, A.K., outside of the PFL and Kayla herself, I feel like this decision impacts not really the UFC, in my opinion, because I thought they were like kind of in play.

They thought maybe we could do what the UFC typically does. We'll have her what many would feel is a nice contract. We'll give her the chance to get these big fights, maybe get some pay-per-view and have the opportunity, kind of like the WWE used to do in the 90s. We're not going to give you these big contracts. We're going to give you the opportunity to make a lot of money.

And I think the UFC was kind of hoping their brands could get her. But I never really thought they were a major player in this entire thing. But Bellator, man, I feel like this is a major blow for them because Kayla was the golden goose. They can sign all these great prospects. They could get some of these former UFC fighters, maybe even a former champion or two, over to their organization, but Kayla was their golden goose. This could have been a major addition for them. Their offer was a damn good one from all accounts, but in the end,

they probably should have blank checked to this thing, AK, so that the PFL had little chance to match. I know contractually PFL could match any offer, but I thought Bellator should just been like, see this, see this piece of paper, fill in any dollar amount, and you can have it. And I feel like Bellator, like Scott Coker, I felt like they really needed to get this done. They didn't.

How big is this for Bellator not being able to get Kayla over, okay? Yeah, I get what you're saying. Like, you know, I'm pretty conservative with these things. So I'd be like, oh, you know, like, Kayla Harrison is the biggest star in the PFL. I still wonder like where she is, you know, when we refer to like the grander scheme of like sports fame. Yes, she had the Olympic fame.

Yes, of course, she is a two-time champion in a prominent MMA league. But like, you know, does she pass Jed's mom test? you know, does do most people know who Keel Harrison is? Not yet. However, however, to go with your point, Mike, the blank check idea, even if, let's say, you know, in the long run, it turns, it kind of like either doesn't turn out of you profitable or even a cost of money just because they, let's say the blank check demand is just exorbitant. And then they follow through with it. And then they managed to get her over. There is still sort of like a lost leader type thing where like just making that kind of splashy signing and showing that, you and, you know, with everyone knowing that PFL had the right to match, and if you still manage to get her, then suddenly you are once again sort of creating this burst of relevance for Bellator. Because Belator, again, it is widely recognized as the number two, you know, MMA promotion in North America.

But PFL has definitely been nipping at its heels, and in many ways has done a great job of marketing itself as a number two promotion to the point that, you know, that it is even a discussion. I mean, there was a time when it was currently UFC way up there, Bellator here, and then everybody else way below. now PFL and Belta are pretty close. So for Beltor to have been able to, if they had been able to take Kayla,

again, regardless of how much, like we can sort of calculate the dollar amount that she would generate for them, like how much revenue she would directly generate, the buzz is really something you can't put a price tag on. And then, and just had to sit being able to say,

we were the ones that made Harrison versus Chris Cyborg. Because you're right now. If that happens in PFL instead, that's a big hit. I mean, maybe it can happen another promotion later, but like, To be the first one to put that fight together, that is right now the biggest fight in women's M.A. you can make.

And I think one of the biggest fights in M.A. period that you can make. And you wanted to have that under your umbrella. Now the lead gets to steal that thunder. This is a tough one. This is a tough one for Belter and for Scott Coker, who, like you said, I'm sure, did their best, but maybe could have gone just an extra mile and risked at all to get that splashy signing. Guess their best wasn't good enough. Jed. Dude, thanks.

How much is this impact Belator? Because like you said, there's a very good chance. Not like, do they not get Kayla, but they probably lost Chris Cyborg too. Like one more fight. It's going to be really tough to resign her unless you play her way more than you were expecting to. There's a very good chance that Chris Cyberg's like, all right, I'll fight Shnade Kavanaugh one more time, beat her in two minutes. And then I'm off to the PFL to make a lot of money and fight Kayla Harrison potentially in a super fight. And PFL could build this up over time too.

Like they don't have to just get right into it. They could give Cyborg a 145 stable to sort of fight and maybe run through. Kayla does it at 55. And then at the end of the season, you have this one major event. And then you do the big super fight at the end of the season. So how bad is this for Bellator? I think this is their promotion. Like this, maybe this is chicken little of me.

But I thought Bellator's had a really bad past two years. Pandemic has not been kind to them. Certainly. And, you know, to A.K.'s point, PFL has made great strides over the past couple of years, gaining notoriety and moving up. And I think that I would go out on a limb and say that this probably is the turning point moment for both promotions, like as far as how they matter in this landscape. Because like I said earlier, and like we're kind of now I think everybody's going to come around very quickly to, I would be pretty shocked if Chris Cyborg came back to Belator. One, like she's already rerunning Cheneid like Kavanaugh. That's that, is that a fight that she cares about at all?

No, it's not. And Cyborg is near the end of her career. She has spoken a lot about legacy, even when she is not speaking directly about legacy, the way she talks and presents herself. It's clear that her legacy is like the most important thing to her, bar none in her career. and Bellator cannot offer her anything if they're rerunning Shnade Kavanaugh of three months after the fact or whatever. Whereas Kayla Harrison obviously presents something.

Cyborg loves picking up belts. She already got four of them. She'd love to go out of fifth. I would be really shocked if she doesn't come back. And so not only did Scott Coker miss the chance to get a bona fide star, whether she passes the mom test or not, and I agree with AKA, I don't think she does. quite yet.

But Kayla Harrison has the trappings of greatness and stardom. They missed out on that, and they're going to lose one of, if not their biggest stars that they have. This is cataclysmic for them. And honestly, one of the first things I thought when I saw the multi-year deal is the NFL and the L.A. Rams. Because, yeah, Scott Coker was going to have to hemorrhage a lot to get her probably. I'm sure they obviously made an effort in a really good.

good one, but do more. Do you think that anyone in the LA Rams organization cares that they don't have a first round draft pick for the next 17 years because they spent them all to get Matt Stafford and Vaughn Miller and everybody? No, they won a Super Bowl. Like, you collect stuff to pay it forward and get the thing that's going to push you to the top, to that next level. This was it.

They had all of their, their leverage their ability was to negotiate. for Kayla Harrison because that is the thing that can take you to a next level of prominence. And they fumbled it. Like I honestly, this is, I don't think we can overstate how really bad this is for Bellator. Because to me, it seems awful. I agree. I feel like, and this is something we talked about on BTL multiple times, Jed. Like Bellator has to get this done.

They have to do it. No matter what it costs them, no matter what it needs to happen, they had to do this. They had to sign her. This meant way more to them than maybe even the PFL for being honest. I mean, PFL would have been catastrophic if they let her go. It would have been a big deal. But, man, not being able to get her when you were so much in play is a very big deal. And you probably saw on social media, everybody, Ali Abdulaziz, Kayla's manager, she's doing the media round.

She's texting quotes to his favorite reporters. She's now the highest paid female fighter in the history of the sport, this new deal. And, you know, yeah, I mean, it's probably true at this point, if we're being honest, if we're looking at all. It's up there. I would assume that she is the highest paid for a blank check, but Ronda Rousey and pay-per-view points for the UFC is certainly made more money than Kayla Harrison. I would be stunned if Rhonda's pay-per-view points didn't put her pretty comfortably beyond Kayla.

AK, it's hard to put yourself in the shoes of a man like Data White, but how is he reacting to this news? Is he just like, ha-ha-ha? Or is he just like, eh, I don't care. Are you asking for me to do my world famous now? Just give me a second. First off, before you get in, yeah, start off your Dana impression. Your Rodney Dana Field.

Rodney Dana Field? What's in this poll you put in there? I'm sure there is one. I guess so. Then go ahead. First of all, we do have a poll going, guys. Make sure to vote in the poll. What do you think of Kayla Harrison resigning with the PFL?

Three options. Woo. Me and and Boo. And Boo took it with a huge early lead. Meh has now taken the lead, 51%. But very little Wu. Wu is at 12%. So 51% Meh, 37% Boo.

Not great early returns on this news from the educated and May fighting viewers. But, oh, okay, sorry, my Dana White. Yeah. Kayla, listen, Kayle Harrison's great. She didn't want to fight the best. She didn't want to fight the best. You know, I thought she wanted respect, but I guess no respect. She doesn't care. No respect. No respect. She doesn't care about fighting the best.

You know, if she ever changes her mind and she could have that contract, you know, we'll take another look at her. But right now, good for her. She's choosing to fight a lower-level competition. And, you know, congratulations on her and getting that deal. Jed, you beat Dana Wade. You don't have to, like, make a do a voice. No, do it. But you know, like, you know someone's going to ask him. Like, next press conference he sits on and does, hey. Oh, dude, this is an easy answer.

What's he going to say? Go ahead. Yeah, they're paying way too much for her. like their companies can go out of business. You just, that's just not how to successfully promote. I've been doing this for 25 years. We're doing pretty well. So I think you guys should just assume that when I'm doing something,

it's smart and everybody else is stupid. And honestly, I actually think he's not wrong in some ways. I think the UFC makes so much damn money that they could have paid Kayla and it still would have worked out for them and been pretty beneficial probably. they also definitely don't need her and can get her in a couple of years when this contract is over and she is even higher. She has even advanced her star to even greater heights. Because really, the thing about Kayla Harrison aside from the net like what she has is latent star ability, you still have to give her a dance partner that matters.

And Chris Cyborg is one of those, but the UFC's never going to work with Chris Cyborg again, because Chris Cyborg is never going to work with them again. And so then you have the Amanda Nunes storyline, but Nunes is that lost a lot of shine with the Pena loss, and Nunez is going to have to rematch Pena, and we'll see how that goes. So there was no need for them to make a strong play here. And anyone who has watched any of our programming knows about my general thoughts

on the UFC and their promotion and how they treat and pay fighters, I actually think that their argument towards Kayla Harrison is maybe more true than it is towards any other fighter just in the world. Where if I was a professional fighter of means and talent, there's not a, I just wouldn't sign with the UFC because they do not treat fighters very well. And anecdotally, and just mathematically, that is very obvious. But if I'm Kayla Harrison, the UFC does provide the one thing that no one else can, which is a platform to become a global superstar. Because she is going to be, she is a star, and she is going to be a star in the PFL, and she would be a star in Bellator or won or anywhere she went.

But she is not going to become a mom-test household name fighter unless she is in the UFC. That's just sort of how the game was. works. And so there is a real argument to them saying, hey, we're not going to pay you the same flat rate that these other places are, but this is what we'll do and we can give you a kick on the pay-per-view. And you can be as big a star as you can be over here and then parlay that into anything else you want to do, a la Ronda Rousey and some of the biggest names in the sport. That's her ceiling. But I also totally get, just take the bird in the hand, the two in the Bush, take the million dollars a year and keep building yourself in the PFL.

And back to Dana White, this is also probably a win for him because, like, Bellator is Belator and technically the number two. But PFL also airs on ESPN, which to some extent probably is good for Dana that the other people that work with his television provider, who are obviously less important than the UFC, got the better person. Feels like he has more leverage over that relationship than he would over via common bellator in any regard. So maybe that doesn't come into play, but this seems like all upside for the UFC, frankly. I agree. I agree. Because when Kayla fights, it's going to be a very big deal. And guess what the programming, guess what all the banners, all the things on the

bottom of the screen, the lower thirds, UFC 275 coming up this Saturday. Like you could use that to promote your own brand. It's, man, this is. This is. This is wild. So good, good on Kayla. Congratulations to her. I'm sure she feels like 20 pounds later right now. I mean,

and there you go. And if you're Bellator, man, go ahead. I just want to say, I love that Kayla Harrison is keeping alive, the strong tradition of World Series of Fighter champions, who Justin Gagey spent years just beating the tar out of people for an obscene amount of money.

And nobody could ever, nobody was ever going to get close to beating him. And it was just a great job. It was just an incredible job that he had. And Kayla Harrison is keeping that proud tradition alive. It may no longer be the World Series of fighting, but she is keeping that alive, and I respect it. Now, if the PFL can fix their Challenger series stuff,

so that everybody can watch it for free or for a very low price point, and they can fix the pacing of not just the Challenger series, but all of their cards in general, along with this Kayla signing, if they can get Chris Cyborg, They're playing with gasoline and this fire of promotion. Are they not? I mean, this is a very big thing. But they got to fix this.

They got to fix this pacing. They got to make it watchable because it's bad. Like that pacing is just bad. The Challenger series pacing is just as awful. It's just bad. They got to fix that quickly. You know what could make it more watchable, Mike? The damage bar.

Get that damage ball. Let's go. People know. We don't have enough graphics. That's the one they're missing. No, you've got to get rid of all the other graphics for just the damage bar. Just the life bar. read an article that Jed and I did.

There was a promotion that did, and it was chronicled by the great, of course, Grabaka Hitman and other people on Twitter. There was a promotion that introduced LifeBars. It was very bizarre. It's just like a guy, it really served no purpose. I think they were trying to, like, should give a- purpose. I mean, I'm sorry, poor phrasing on my part, Jed.

It certainly served a purpose. What that purpose was for me, I think, was difficult to figure out. Jed, I know I think you were more into it maybe than I was. But again, look up Miss Fists or just MMA Power Bar, Life Bar. You'll find our article. Don't do Power Bar. You're not going to get anywhere with Powerball. You'll find a lot of Mark Andre Bagelagoe articles if you do MMA Power Bar.

But I think we did LifeB. I think we used both phrases. So look up that article guys on Miss Fist, MMAFighting.com, Miss Fist, and check out the weirdness that it was. And see if you want that to PFL. The PFL is the opportunity to have a lot of fun here. Now that Kayla's here. Even if they don't get Cyborg, they could have even more fun if we're being honest. You think they're going to, or are they just going to keep doing stupid tournaments for her?

They're going to keep doing tournaments. Cyborg will get her own tournament. They will make us wait for this fight. Like if they get Cyborg, they will make us wait for this fight and take the risk. And we'll surely talk about it on BTL that they haven't done it right away. And yeah, we'll see. And it's going to be a seven-hour show the first time she fights on it. Did you guys see the pay-per-view thing?

The pay-per-view comment. There is a, in the release, they are launching a pay-per-view Super Fight Division, which I assume would mean to accommodate should they get Cyborg to not have to tie it to a tournament. You know, not to tie it to any of their scheduled events and they could actually just do a pay-per-view. Now, again, I agree. A lot of the comments on Twitter, of course. Yes. a lot of social media headshaking questioning why would why would people who are used to getting

pfl on ESPN pay for even a fight like cyborg risk Caleb maybe you know I don't think you're getting more than I don't think the brand is just not strong enough and again like I said before Harrison is not a household name yet so I don't know about that but again it looks like they are already kind of sending themselves up for the possibility of bringing in cyborg and creating a new platform for her and Kayla to fight on. So, uh, I didn't, you know, you don't need a new platform. You have a new platform. That's what I don't know, man.

Just gotta make some money. That's a bad idea. Uh, and if it's any more than like 1299, it's an awful idea. Awful. No, it's all categorically stupid. Like you, you don't have other pay-per-views to sell. You have a one-off. So instead of trying to make a.

small bag for this one good thing you have. Use this one good thing to build a brand identity for a free thing that you offer weekly. What on the moon of all things. People are so bad at this. I don't understand it. Well, we could talk about PFL's potential pay-per-view model and many other things. But in the end, Kayla Harrison has made her decision. She is staying with the PFL for the foreseeable future, multi-year deal. We don't know how many years that that actually means. But the fact that it's more than one is very interesting. And could this lead to other big signings? Could this lead to a potential Chris Cyborg heading over to the PFL deal? We will see. And if that happens, we will respond to it and we'll react to it like probably we're doing right now. So

54% meh. 54% meh reaction to the signing. 32%. 2% boo, 13% woo. 13% woo. Maybe don't do that pay-per-view maybe. 13% is more than I would have felt. They're out kicking their coverage. Good for them, woo.

Big day for the PFL. Big day for the PFL. So we're done. Julia Bud fans in our chat right now. All right. So we're done. That is, we gave this 27 minutes. I didn't think that was even possible.

But we have done it. And that's it. So for Jed, for AK, I am Mike Kek. Thank you for watching. Kayla Harrison sticking around with the PFL for at least two more seasons. And we'll see what else that could mean. So have a great rest of the day, everybody. Thanks for watching.

See you.