https://www.mmanews.com/news/kayla-harrison-update-frustration-pfl
PFL superstar Kayla Harrison isn’t happy with how her fighting return has been handled by the league as she awaits her first fight of 2023.
Harrison hasn’t fought since a loss to Larissa Pacheco in the 2022 PFL Championships last November. She wants a rematch with Pacheco after one of the most stunning losses in MMA in recent years.
Harrison re-signed with the PFL last year after a lengthy free agency. She has two fights left on her current contract and could potentially headline one of the league’s first pay-per-view cards this year.
Harrison hinted last year that she was done with the PFL season format. The quick turnarounds between fights and the grind of a long season became tedious to the biggest name in the PFL.
After initially showing disinterest in another season, she wanted inclusion in the women’s featherweight picture. Harrison is disappointed that the PFL decided to leave her off the roster and remains without a fight.
Kayla Harrison Reveals She Wanted Inclusion In 2023 PFL Season
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Harrison gave her 2023 outlook with the PFL and where things stand at present.
“I wanted to be in the season,” Harrison said. “I think that I get paid a lot of money. I think that they feel like it’s not the best way to utilize me. I think that they want to put me on a pay-per-view card against a big name, I want to fight. I don’t want to just talk about fighting, I want to fight. It’s frustrating.”
The women’s featherweight division kicks things off this weekend at PFL 2. Pacheco, Aspen Ladd, and others headline the PFL’s newest female division.
One glaring absence is Harrison, who won back-to-back PFL titles before the loss to Pacheco last year. She began her professional career with a 15-0 record and seemed on the verge of super fights with Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes.
Harrison is eager to return to the PFL cage, although the uncertainty surrounding her next fight appears to be causing some friction between the two sides.
Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
This was inevitable.
When everyone saw what PFL was paying Kayla PER fight let alone the “given” $1MM she was set up to win it made zero sense given how they perform.
There is no magic outside the UFC. These promotions that pay UFC cast-offs and people like Kayla huge dollars are not living in reality and it’s not sustainable.
Not surprised one bit that she is shelved and they don’t want to pay her $500,000 or more per fight in a PFL season that gets about 150,000 viewers an event.
She’s a victim of her own financial success and it is what it is.
She should be more happy that she’s gotten rich than being upset she isn’t getting booked now.
The elephant in the room is a fourth fight against Kayla Harrison (15-1), of course. While often fighters downplay fights beyond the one in front of them at a given time, Pacheco wasn’t afraid to lobby for this one when she spoke Monday with MMA Junkie Radio.
“The rivalry exists,” Pacheco said. “I took away her invincibility. She’s still under contract with PFL. I think if I win, that’s the fight. I think everybody wants that fight. I know she wants it. I want it. The event wants it. I think it’s the right fight to make. … I feel great with that win. I mean, we’re talking about an athlete that comes from another sport and is a two-time Olympic medalist. She’s at another level. I managed to beat someone with those qualifications. She’s a great athlete. It really means a lot to me.”
LOL
1 Like
She got rich off of competing in a fake division that didn’t even have a talent pool. The chick that beat her used to fight at FLW, BW and then FW before fighting Kayla at LW because Kayla didn’t want to cut weight and PFL thought they could build WLW when WFW is already almost empty and UFC and Bellator have most of the talent under contract.
Why PFL thought they could invest heavy in Kayla and were guaranteed to have another Cyborg or Ronda level star on their hands…didn’t workout too well.
PFL investment and revenue… lets see how long it will last.
Did anyone get an idea of how many PPV’s that PFL Finals PPV sold? I was thinking 35k. I’d love to know how close I was.
They will never say.
They will only say if it was successful. When they say “it was a success!” or “we were happy!” but don’t brag about the number it means to probably wasn’t really a success…
1 Like
All of this is why I think she should be focusing on everything she scored in this deal and not focusing on how they can’t afford to waste money booking her anymore.
Reminds me a bit of some unions when they don’t understand business.
“We know we paid you really really well but we can’t afford that anymore and if we keep doing it we will go out of business.”
Kayla/union: “well, I don’t care if you go out of business as long as you keep paying me!”
…
2 Likes
They should just cut her. They can’t pay her and they won’t get mileage out of her. Cut her loose.
1 Like