Two-time PFL lightweight champion Kayla Harrison has signed with the UFC, and she’s agreed to cut down to bantamweight to face Holly Holm in her octagon debut at UFC 300.
Harrison’s former foe, Larissa Pacheco, isn’t confident that the Olympian can hit the mark for the April 13 event.
Pacheco, a two-division champion in the PFL at 155 and 145 pounds, said in an interview with MMA Fighting that the biggest question going into UFC 300 is whether or not Harrison will be able to hit 135 the morning before.
“Let’s see if she can make weight first,” Pacheco said. “To cut [weight] with all that muscle she has, she has to be ready. I don’t know if it’s easier now that the UFC doesn’t work with USADA anymore, if she can use some juice or something like that [laughs] because being that gigantic, she has to do something to make weight. Let’s see if she can do it.”
UFC CEO Dana White recently said the American Top Team athlete made test cuts before agreeing to the match. Harrison competed her entire career as a lightweight, except for one featherweight showdown at Invicta FC and her last PFL bout, a featherweight bout that was moved to 150-pound catchweight after Aspen Ladd replaced Julia Budd on three weeks’ notice.
The weight cut won’t be easy for Harrison, who competed as high as 172 pounds as an Olympic judoka, Pacheco said. The Brazilian vet also said Harrison might not be in her prime anymore at 33. Holly Holm may not be at her best either, having lost by submission to Mayra Bueno Silva in her most recent bout, but being a natural bantamweight could give her an advantage.
“[Holm] might not be in her prime, but she has huge experience and is used to cutting that weight and competing in that weight class, while Kayla is doing it for the first time,” Pacheco said. “I don’t know, maybe Holly wins this fight. Aspen wasn’t in a good moment and still gave [Harrison] trouble in that fight. To say that [Harrison] is fighting at the highest level against everyone, she’s not. It’s clear. She might be in great shape, but her performances aren’t good.”
The PFL champion will cheer for Holm to be victorious at UFC 300 given her three-fight rivalry with Harrison, which ended at 2-1 in favor of the American. However, Pacheco added that an eventual victory for Harrison in the UFC “is good parameter for me, since I’ve beaten her, and I know I can beat her again, and I’ll have an idea about the level [of competition in the UFC].”
“Nothing against Kayla,” she continued. “But she’s a former opponent, and that will never change. I feel she’s a different person in front of the camera, she’s cocky, and that’s not who I am. I talk to everybody, I respect everybody.
“She was always very arrogant toward everybody in the organization. The way she walked, how she acted, always portraying herself as the queen of MMA. I just don’t think she will do that well in the UFC. It will take some time for her to step to a new weight class. She might do well, but her performances, I don’t think she will deliver that much.”
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