The PFL announced earlier this month it has suspended its entire 2020 season because of the coronavirus, and intends to pick operations back up in 2021. One of the faces of the promotion, however, is not content with that plan.
2019 lightweight champion Kayla Harrison told ESPN on Thursday she expects the PFL to still meet its contractual requirement of offering her two fights in 2020, or she will consider the organization to be in breach of contract and will start to look for fights elsewhere.
“The only thing you can’t buy in life is time,” Harrison told ESPN. “The one thing I can’t ever get back is time. And I can’t afford to take 15 months off in the prime of my career. I don’t fight for money, I don’t fight for anything other than the glory, the legacy, the fact I want to be the best in the world at what I do.
“While I admire the PFL and have obviously been a company girl through and through, I can’t not fight for 15 months. It’s not personal. I have to do what’s in my best interest.”
Harrison (7-0) is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo and has been considered one of the top prospects in mixed martial arts ever since she officially transitioned to the sport in 2018. All seven of her professional bouts have taken place under the PFL banner.
PFL CEO Peter Murray told ESPN earlier this month he would never completely rule out the possibility of hosting a one-off, non-season type event in 2020, but he admitted his main focus is ceasing most of the company’s operations and providing ESPN, its broadcast partner, non-live programming until it can resume its season format in 2021.
Harrison, 29, said she would understand that stance if other promotions were doing the same. The UFC, however, is planning to promote three events in a matter of weeks, on May 9, May 13 and May 16. Bellator MMA also plans to resume operations this year, even though its postponed its scheduled events through June.
“I guess a lot of it depends on what happens with other promotions, right?” said Harrison, when asked how long she’ll afford PFL to not offer her a bout. “If other promotions are having fights and the country opens back up, there is really no reason for us to not have fights.
“If they say they can’t offer me two fights [in 2020], then that’s the contract broken, isn’t it? That would suck. I don’t want that to happen. I want to fight for the PFL.”
In the event Harrison were to leave the PFL, the UFC would certainly be an interesting landings spot. Harrison competes at 155 pounds, which is a division the UFC does not promote. However, the UFC has one of the biggest female stars in the sport, in 135- and 145-pound champion Amanda Nunes.
Harrison and Nunes actually train at the same gym, American Top Team, in Coconut Creek, Florida. Harrison says the two sparred together very early in her career, and it was one of the main reasons she chose to train at ATT.
“She’s my role model,” Harrison said of Nunes. “She is one of the greatest combat athletes of all time and she’s who I aspire to be.
“I went there for a week when I was trying out different gyms … I sparred her, and I had never been whupped on like that by a female. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is where the best in the world is. This is where I need to be.’ I remember the next day, I had bruises all over my body, even on my stomach. I was like, ‘How? What? Did I get hit by a truck?'”
Occasionally in MMA, teammates refuse to fight one another, but Harrison said that because of her judoka background, where it’s not uncommon for athletes to train together and then compete against one another, she would never rule it out.
Depending on what happens in Harrison’s situation with the PFL and Nunes’s continued dominance, a fight between the two could eventually be one of the biggest fights in female MMA history.
“I don’t think that’s any time soon,” Harrison said. “And if it does happen, you know, my hope is we can do it with mutual respect.”