Kayla Harrison acknowledges Ronda Rousey's complex legacy in MMA

09/11/2024 10:37 AM

Often drawing comparisons to inaugural bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey during her mixed martial arts career, incoming UFC 307 star, Kayla Harrison has admitted that while the Riverside native holds a complex legacy in the sport — she paved a way for her female counterparts.

Harrison, a former two-time PFL (Professional Fighters League) lightweight tournament winner and two-time Olympic gold medal victor, is slated to return to action at the beginning of next month, making her sophomore Octagon walk in a showdown with Ketlen Vieira.

Making her long-anticipated bow in the promotion on the preliminary card of UFC 300 earlier this year, Harrison took out common-foe, Holly Holm with a dominant second round rear-naked choke win, landing herself as the number three rank in the division.

Kayla Harrison issues props to Ronda Rousey for smashing MMA ceiling for women

And ahead of her expected title-eliminator against Brazilian star, Vieira next month in Salt Lake City, Harrison discussed the legacy of former bantamweight gold holder, Rousey in the sport, while maintaining she smashed the ceiling for fighters of the female variety.

“I think for me, no matter who Ronda (Rousey) is as a person and no matter what she says or thinks or how she does things or how she handles losses, who she handles any of it, no matter what, you cannot deny the fact she shattered a ceiling for women,” Kayla Harrison told MMA Fighting. Dana White went on record multiple times saying he would never have women in the UFC. She f*cking blasted right through that.”

“To me, that’s her legacy,” Kayla Harrison explained. “No matter what she says or what she does, of course humans are going to be humans, people deal with things the way they deal with things but she paved the way when there was no way. That I am eternally grateful [for].”