Kayla Harrison
Kayla Harrison (born July 2, 1990) is an American professional mixed martial artist and multiple Olympic gold medalist and world champion judoka. She currently competes in the Women’s Bantamweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). As of April 16, 2024, she is #4 in the UFC women's bantamweight rankings, and as of May 7, 2024, she is #14 in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings.[5]
Kayla Harrison
July 2, 1990
Middletown, Ohio, U.S.
5 ft 8 in (173 cm)[1]
136 lb (62 kg; 9 st 10 lb)
Bantamweight (2024–present)
Featherweight (2020, 2023)
Lightweight (2018–2022)
66 in (168 cm)[2]
American Top Team (2018–present)[3][4]
6th dan black belt in judo
2018–present (MMA)
18
17
6
7
4
1
1
NYAC[1]
USA Judo National Team FORCE
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Harrison competed in the 78 kg (172 lb) weight category in judo. She won the 2010 World Judo Championships, gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, and gold at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games.[1]
After the 2016 Olympics, she moved into mixed martial arts and she was the former Professional Fighters League lightweight champion. In March 2023, Harrison was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.[6]
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Early life[edit]
Born in Middletown, Ohio,[7] Harrison took up judo at the age of six, having been introduced to the sport by her mother, who was a black belt. She graduated from Middletown High School (Ohio).[8]
She began training under coach Daniel Doyle, and won two national championships by the age of 15. During that period, Doyle was sexually abusing Harrison, who reported it to another judoka, who in turn told Harrison's mother. She subsequently reported this to the police.[9] Doyle was convicted and sentenced to a ten-year prison term.[9] A month after the abuse was revealed, she moved away from her home in Ohio to Boston to train with Jimmy Pedro and his father.[9]
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Judo[edit]
Harrison changed weight classes in 2008, from the –63 kg division to the –78 kg division. She could not compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics as the United States had not qualified in that division. She won the 2008 Junior World Championship that year, and the following year placed second, becoming the first American to compete in two Junior World Championships finals.[7]
Harrison won the gold medal in the –78 kg category at the 2010 World Championships,[10] the first American to do so since 1999 (when her coach, Jimmy Pedro, did so in Birmingham, United Kingdom).[11] At the 2011 World Championships in Paris, she placed third taking the bronze medal. Harrison had lost to the eventual winner, Audrey Tcheuméo of France, in her semi-final.[12]
Prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Harrison was injured during training, having torn a medial collateral ligament.[9] On August 2, 2012, she won the Olympic title in the –78 kg category, defeating Gemma Gibbons of Britain by two yukos, to become the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in judo.[13][14] She earned a second Olympic gold medal in the same weight class in 2016 in Rio, defeating Audrey Tcheuméo of France.
In 2015, Harrison was elected to the United States Judo Federation Hall Of Fame[15] and on August 31, 2016, following her second Olympic gold medal, the United States Judo Association made a batsugun promotion of Harrison to rokudan (6th Degree Black Belt) making her the youngest person in the US to ever be awarded this rank.
Mixed martial arts[edit]
Harrison, a former training partner of fellow judoka Ronda Rousey, announced in October 2016 that she had signed with World Series of Fighting. While she would initially work as a commentator she also indicated she was contracted to fight, in the women's 145 pounds (66 kg) division.[16][17]
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