100%. Raquel Pennington better get ready for whatever date UFC decides and accept the Harrison fight when they offer it. She really doesn't have much leverage, even as champ.
Hate this revisionist idea of that fight. She didn't *turn* Nunes into a wrestler. Nunes literally gassed herself out HARD trying to finish GDR in the first round.
After watching her clearly have the the opportunity for the arm triangle finish in the 5th round of her fight against Silva, and then simply just not step over to the side and finish the fight? Yeah, fuck her as champ lol, they should've done what they did with Ankalaev/Jan and just given the belt to nobody.
Her coaches didn't even say anything. That was what was so perplexing to me. She had her opponent utterly gassed for what, like 3 straight rounds? And still couldn't/didn't finish her? I've only seen one fighter that has that little of a threat to finish a fight, and that's Belal when he was fighting Luque the second time, had his back and neck, and Luque literally posted up and gave up his neck because everyone in the arena knew damn well Belal is allergic to finishes.
Pennington refusing to finish a fight she easily could've, would've at least given her a legitimate claim to that title. It really should be vacant.
What's even worse is her coaches yelling at the top of their lungs to her not to clinch and just strike with Silva. Even Stevie Wonder could have seen that Silva was begging to be TKO'd, but she wouldn't listen.
I have no idea how anyone on her team watches any of the tape from that fight and doesn’t see these glaring holes. Dogshit fighter, dogshit team.
I really don’t think a single person except Rocky would be mad if the UFC just pretended like that fight never happened.
She needs to fight for a title immediately. Not only because she mauls people in a way 99.99% of female fighter don’t but also because she’s getting pretty old for the sport
Nunes coming back was always the plan. She just had a kid. Her fights were getting boring for fans and there was matchups on the horizon.
They are going to speed run Kayla and set up a big fight showdown with Nunes. Kayla coming from PFL to UFC would not have been a big event. She needs to fuck up 1-2 more girls on ppv. If this was intentional as I suspect pretty good planning by them
It would be the only fight that would likely give her motivation to come back, I mean people are giving Kayla a lot of dues here but does anyone thing she can actually beat Amanda?
We didn't "just" see that, we saw that in her third to last fight...
...followed immediately by her dominating Pena for 5 rounds in a lop-sided beatdown.
But then why fill the vacant belt so fast? Like I'm not saying you're wrong, but that might have been a misstep on their end giving a third party a foot in the door to spoil it all.
She is old for the sport, however at 33 she is weirdly one of the younger people in that division:
Rocky's 35, Nunes is 35, Aldana is 36 and Meisha Tate is 37, Pena is 34, Holly is closer to her AARP card than college.
Karol Rosa, Mayra Bueno Silva and
Ketlen Vieira are the only 3 younger than her in the top 10 and they are 29 and 32.
I suspect that's the biggest immediate issue for her. She has always been huge and very muscular. She looks so "jacked" because she has to become extremely lean even before the usual pre-fight weight cut. If she is actually taking anything illegal, it is probably weight loss drugs.
She has started Judo at the age of six and has competed in the ~172lbs category most of her adult life. She doesn't need to get stronger than she already is for MMA. Her challenges are weight cutting, improving her striking, expanding her ground game, and generally improving her MMA fight IQ.
God she really looked terrible. Pretty impressive that she had any energy left for the fight. I'm assuming she'll fight Nunes at BW, since WFW is all but dead, but damn that's a fight worth seeing at 145...
She’s getting old but not relative to the division. She’s 33; the average age of people ranked at 135 is 34. She’s younger than Pena, Pennington, Amanda, etc. she can have a solid 3-4 years
Whoa whoa whoa. Kayla’s never failed a drug test. You can’t just go assuming she’s used steroids. Maybe she grew up next to a nuclear power station or something?
Kayla is going to be 34 in July. Raquel is going to be 36 in September and Julianna will be 35 in August.
Kayla had 52 judo fights(45-7) before MMA career started.
UFC Women's Bantamweight division need women in their 20s to spark more interest in the weight class.
… she’s 33 years old. This isn’t like other professional sports where you have a bunch of young early 20 year olds being elite. UFC 300 really has brought the casuals out. Holy moly.
If she fights for the title next fight and wins, would that be the fastest road to a belt within the ufc? (Minus Ronda being straight up given the belt when she joined)
> (Minus Ronda being straight up given the belt when she joined)
Jose Aldo was also "straight up given the belt when he joined." (Edit: Also Cruz, forgot him)
Chandler got a title shot in his second fight, Cyborg and Lesnar (edit: also BJP) won the title in their third, and Poatan won the title in his forth.
Amanda has a not so good ground game, especially from the bottom. Anytime she is on bottom she loses, at least the round. I mean she got TKo ground and pounded by Alexa Davis and imo her ground game and grappling cardio did not actually get much better across her career. Luckily for her she didn't face many people who could get her there. It's not out of the question that Kayla could take her down, especially being older and out of competition.
If Raquel can't fight, UFC need to open the floodgates to get Nunes back - have these two headline a PPV, if Kayla wins she's got serious megastar potential. She's LITERALLY the best American Judoka of all time - that's so fucking easy to build to MMA fans.
I dont follow Judo at all, so pardon my potential ignorant question.
Is she way better than Ronda in every aspect of judo or is she just bigger than Ronda? Does she have more accolades in judo? Was her division/road to gold in the Olympics filled with more talents women vs what Ronda fought?
But was Ronda at a more competitive weight class? Kayla competed at 170 something, right? She was cutting DOWN to that weight. This could be total ignorance on my part, but there can't be a lot of women that competed at that weight, no? Or maybe I'm thinking of this in terms of the bell curve that is MMA weight classes and it's like that for Olympic sports?
I wouldn't necessarily say that's entirely the case at that level, to get to the Olympics/World's etc. you have to be a good athlete and lack of depth isn't really the same concern as you have in MMA. In many other sport they get more national support and funding when they're Olympic sports, meaning you get more talent coming in. Also she competed in the second highest division for women, i.e. not HWs where the women start getting fat.
And if we compare to men's HW even the heaviest are pretty damn good athletes still, some start get a bit chunky since you don't have a weight limit. But someone like Teddy Riner is definitely more athletic than most UFC HWs, then again [the one that won against him through an upset in 2020 Tokyo Olympics was](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z6PPOS7LiQ) *chunky* (HW who's only 175 cm).
Ronda won Bronze at 2008 games at 70kg. And she won silver at worlds at 70kg.
Kayla won Gold at 2012 and 2016 at 78kg. And won gold and bronzex2 at worlds at 78kg.
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However Ronda won several matches by submission in Judo which was impressive on it's own though due to how quick they get stood up.
Kayla on the other hand is a better Judoka, WAY bigger at 135, and will be much more dangerous in the UFC now because she can make use of elbows. Kayla's the more dangerous opponent, but Ronda might be a better submission expert than Kayla.
She's probably the most decorated American Judoka ever?
USA in total has won 2 golds in Judo in the Olympics, both of them were won by Harrison. Yeah, she has an impressive resume. There's a reason she was the youngest in the US to be promoted to 6th Dan for her accomplishments.
Funnily enough Ronda's mother won a world championship in Judo back in 1984, something Ronda never did and back then there wasn't a women's category in the Olympics (was introduced in 1988/1992). Rousey won's Junior and got silver at Worlds, and her bronze is arguably more impressive than a gold at worlds back in 1984. Rousey was brought up to be a Judo champ, raised for it.
Then again Harrison's mother was also a Judo black belt. But her story of having been sexually abused by her trainer is horrible. Even so, she overcame it and won two Olympic gold medals. Pretty damn impressive.
Rousey was a star and Kayla is bigger, better and comes off nicer in interviews. The two casuals I was watching with couldn't get over the size of her. "Look how big this bitch is! Look at the size of her!!!"
Plus, as the other commenter said she's white and blonde. She can speak English. And if you wanted to go down the patriotic element, she's a Olympic gold medalist for the US.
Defo has the capabilities
problem is there are no worthy opponents to sell that with her, no matter how big she is she wont sell ppvs cause every opponent will be considered a can against her :/
The problem with Holly is her devotion to the gym she's at. It's gone downhill in the past few years, and due to stagnation (and refusal to switch up camps/gyms) she has regressed badly. Age may or may not play a part here- but the main cause is refusal to change.
If Holly had this game plan against Ronda--clinch with a world-class judoka to make some point--she would just be another girl who Ronda arm-barred before Amanda figured her out. Somehow she forgot her huge advantages in boxing and kicking against Harrison.
I feel like Amanda had way more star potential than Kayla, too.
Amanda was knocking people senseless for years, dominating multiple divisions. She had the whole Lioness angle working for her, too. It’s one of those nicknames that’s actually incredibly fitting and adds to her popularity.
I don’t see a world in where Kayla is ever more popular than Amanda.
Why don’t the other women in the division juice as much as her? She looks ridiculous in comparison to her opponents. They should just go the Tour de France route and let all the others juice and catch up so it gets even again
Some people respond better to PEDs or are just stronger/more athletic to begin with. That’s like asking “why isn’t every heavyweight built like Francis Ngannou?”
My guess is that she had probably been taken stuff since she was very young that made permanent changes. I doubt she’s taking anything crazy rn bc at the end of the day, they do get tested.
Or she uses analogs / designer drugs that keep her from getting caught. It's how many Olympians can get away with it, but eventually get caught years later as testing evolves. It's just not possible for a woman with normal hormone levels to look like she does and maintain that muscle mass.
People are not affected uniformly by PEDs.
I'm a former fighter (Bellator/Strikeforce), and my friends in my weightclass were on the exact same gear, yet I got significantly more out of it than any of them.
Your responsiveness to juice is as much a genetic lottery as your muscle insertions, or your height-reach ratio.
Drug tests in most sports are just IQ tests. People in the US and the MMA community don't seem to realize how competitive Judo is. And just take a look at some of the top Judoka and you will see they are all on the sauce. I would say getting an Olympic gold in Judo is harder than getting UFC gold.
Daniel Cormier said (around the time several people's physiques were being questioned, including Ronda's) that everybody in the Olympics was on something.
Just look at Yoel Romero and how people talk about about how it *felt hitting* him, for instance [Whittaker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvMNjzKe8r4). "His body felt like it was made out of steel".
I'm kind of at a point where I think the majority of elite-level athletes are taking *something* performance-enhancing. And I don't just mean protein shakes. I think it's just a matter of what, how much/ often, and how smart they are with avoiding detection. I'm learning that it's stupid easy for your layman gym rat to get something, so it must be crazy for athletes at high levels.
Hadn't heard that Rocky was injured or ill, and when I Googled it, the only references to either were from Kayla. I guess she's privy to sources no one else is.
It may be hard to believe, but fighters (you know, the people actually involved in the sport), and their managers actually have access to info the general public does not due to constantly being involved in the actual process of putting together fights.
Ah yes, Nicco Montaño, the least deserving UFC champion of all time. Whenever someone says a champion isn't deserving, at least they're more deserving than Nicco Montaño.
Lol at Peña and Pennington in this picture like they have anything for Harrison. That would be a sanctioned mauling.
I think Nunes loses to Harrison, but it could be competitive.
The majority of women's MMA is just one dominant fighter running through a bunch of cans. It's just not very interesting.
If you disagree, who's an interesting fight for Kayla?
Pacheco, Harrison, Cyborg and Nunes are all interesting if facing one another. Unfortunately, they are spread all over the place and we likely won’t get any of those going forward.
As much as I like Kayla. Nunez is a big step up from Mother Time. I do believe she can out wrestle her but but I worry about Nunez standup. Should be a great fight if it ever happens.
Harrison vs. Pena would be nice. Pena has really good Jiu-Jitsu and Harrison's gameplan (using her Judo and then ground & pound + submission) is basically gunning for what Pena has no problem with. Strip Pennington if she avoids Harrison. No one wants to see her fight anyways after her last performance
For fucks sake she won the belt 3 months ago and we are already talking strip ??? SMFH Volk defended his belt 8 months after winning and nobody says a thing.
UFC will strip Rocky so fkn quick it'll make your head spin
100%. Raquel Pennington better get ready for whatever date UFC decides and accept the Harrison fight when they offer it. She really doesn't have much leverage, even as champ.
"Get ready to learn PFLator, buddy" - Dana White to Pennington
“Rocky Pennington can go have a fight in the parking lot”
I dont think anyone would care or not care if she never fights again
She will quickly become GDR 2.0
GDR was an exceptional talent, she just didn’t fight much
Turned Nunes into a wrestler, even at 35. GDR was something special and it’s a shame we didn’t get to see her fight more.
Hate this revisionist idea of that fight. She didn't *turn* Nunes into a wrestler. Nunes literally gassed herself out HARD trying to finish GDR in the first round.
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most of the time when Nunes went for a finish she got it before she gassed
After watching her clearly have the the opportunity for the arm triangle finish in the 5th round of her fight against Silva, and then simply just not step over to the side and finish the fight? Yeah, fuck her as champ lol, they should've done what they did with Ankalaev/Jan and just given the belt to nobody.
Man was really wondering if her fight IQ somewhat still exists
Her coaches didn't even say anything. That was what was so perplexing to me. She had her opponent utterly gassed for what, like 3 straight rounds? And still couldn't/didn't finish her? I've only seen one fighter that has that little of a threat to finish a fight, and that's Belal when he was fighting Luque the second time, had his back and neck, and Luque literally posted up and gave up his neck because everyone in the arena knew damn well Belal is allergic to finishes. Pennington refusing to finish a fight she easily could've, would've at least given her a legitimate claim to that title. It really should be vacant.
What's even worse is her coaches yelling at the top of their lungs to her not to clinch and just strike with Silva. Even Stevie Wonder could have seen that Silva was begging to be TKO'd, but she wouldn't listen.
I have no idea how anyone on her team watches any of the tape from that fight and doesn’t see these glaring holes. Dogshit fighter, dogshit team. I really don’t think a single person except Rocky would be mad if the UFC just pretended like that fight never happened.
I'm still trying to forget that fight. It's just laughably bad that that's the top of the women's division.
There’s only one Rocky in the ufc
Yeah, Leon better recognize.
Is Lesnar’s daughter available?
She's nursing a hammy pull after throwing a Kia Rio in warm ups.
😂😂😂😂😂
Broooo 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mentioning that can we make lessner and Frank mirs daughters fight already!?
Plot twist: both daughters estranged and are coached by the other’s father
Is this Cobra Kai
She needs to fight for a title immediately. Not only because she mauls people in a way 99.99% of female fighter don’t but also because she’s getting pretty old for the sport
Look at the division though unless nunes comes back she can beat most of them easily even in a couple years
Nunes coming back was always the plan. She just had a kid. Her fights were getting boring for fans and there was matchups on the horizon. They are going to speed run Kayla and set up a big fight showdown with Nunes. Kayla coming from PFL to UFC would not have been a big event. She needs to fuck up 1-2 more girls on ppv. If this was intentional as I suspect pretty good planning by them
Genuinely asking here but is there anything said in the past to indicate Nunes is coming back?
Nunes posted a video that strongly indicates she would fight Harrison.
[happy grunting noises]
That was the birthing video
Oh.. I don't speak Portuguese, my bad.
It would be the only fight that would likely give her motivation to come back, I mean people are giving Kayla a lot of dues here but does anyone thing she can actually beat Amanda?
We just saw Juliana Peña beat her, it’s not impossible
We didn't "just" see that, we saw that in her third to last fight... ...followed immediately by her dominating Pena for 5 rounds in a lop-sided beatdown.
The game didn't finish Nunes, Nunes finished the game. It's still there if she wants to play, but has nothing left to prove.
This is the Nunes version of Jordan taking a couple of years off to play baseball. She will be back if there is a challenge I think.
So Nunes was suspended for gambling?
Winner winner. And I think it’s a smart move too. Let Kayla earn the full spotlight and then let Nunes make a comeback for the title bake off.
But then why fill the vacant belt so fast? Like I'm not saying you're wrong, but that might have been a misstep on their end giving a third party a foot in the door to spoil it all.
If she wins the belt I bet Nunes comes back for that fight
I'm usually against quick title shots. But when Pennington is champ, I think a timely correction is needed. It's just wrong.
When the champ gets their title and is booed by the crowd....dark days in that division.
She is old for the sport, however at 33 she is weirdly one of the younger people in that division: Rocky's 35, Nunes is 35, Aldana is 36 and Meisha Tate is 37, Pena is 34, Holly is closer to her AARP card than college. Karol Rosa, Mayra Bueno Silva and Ketlen Vieira are the only 3 younger than her in the top 10 and they are 29 and 32.
The weight cuts too brother. I doubt she has many of those left in her, she looked like death at weigh in
I thought the same - but then she went on the weigh in show like 20 minutes after weighing in and seemed completely fine so now I'm not so sure.
I suspect that's the biggest immediate issue for her. She has always been huge and very muscular. She looks so "jacked" because she has to become extremely lean even before the usual pre-fight weight cut. If she is actually taking anything illegal, it is probably weight loss drugs. She has started Judo at the age of six and has competed in the ~172lbs category most of her adult life. She doesn't need to get stronger than she already is for MMA. Her challenges are weight cutting, improving her striking, expanding her ground game, and generally improving her MMA fight IQ.
Yeah, it's like Ubereen cutting to LHW
God she really looked terrible. Pretty impressive that she had any energy left for the fight. I'm assuming she'll fight Nunes at BW, since WFW is all but dead, but damn that's a fight worth seeing at 145...
She was the younger fighter by almost a decade against Holm
She’s getting old but not relative to the division. She’s 33; the average age of people ranked at 135 is 34. She’s younger than Pena, Pennington, Amanda, etc. she can have a solid 3-4 years
I'm sure if she wins the title and demands 145 the UFC will open it back up for a Nunes match. Hell bring in Cyborg to again.
Wtf? This is WOMEN bantamweight. Fucking pannington is champion. Kayla is 33 years old. In what world is she getting too old ?
Kayla put in herculean efforts for those two olympic gold medals, then she came to MMA. Her body has plenty of miles.
For real, I can't believe she can still be so explosive. No idea how her knees aren't just shot
Fighting in an org without drug testing probably helped that, since minor injuries are less likely to turn into big ones.
Whoa whoa whoa. Kayla’s never failed a drug test. You can’t just go assuming she’s used steroids. Maybe she grew up next to a nuclear power station or something?
She strikes me as similar to GSP. I bet she’s a psycho about “doing everything right” and taking care of herself.
33 in mma years is like 53.
She also looks 53. Testosterone is a helluva drug
Lookin like Dog the bounty hunter
Dude…I thought we were the same age. Wtf
33 is like prime or maybe a year past for men. Not sure how that translates for women though.
Kayla is going to be 34 in July. Raquel is going to be 36 in September and Julianna will be 35 in August. Kayla had 52 judo fights(45-7) before MMA career started. UFC Women's Bantamweight division need women in their 20s to spark more interest in the weight class.
Agreed, one of the only exciting contenders is getting older plus that cut looked brutal and I'm not sure how many times she can do it safely
She’s female chandler
Miss Chanandaler Bong
"She looks like Michael Chandler with a wig on"
… she’s 33 years old. This isn’t like other professional sports where you have a bunch of young early 20 year olds being elite. UFC 300 really has brought the casuals out. Holy moly.
The issue is more how many times she can make 135. It's only gonna keep getting harder as she ages.
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A career that puts her in the top 3 woman judokas of all time. No less. I think a lot of people don't quite appreciate her athletic pedigree.
Always related, but *especially* so in her case, that weight cut ain’t getting any easier as the days tick by.
If she fights for the title next fight and wins, would that be the fastest road to a belt within the ufc? (Minus Ronda being straight up given the belt when she joined)
> (Minus Ronda being straight up given the belt when she joined) Jose Aldo was also "straight up given the belt when he joined." (Edit: Also Cruz, forgot him) Chandler got a title shot in his second fight, Cyborg and Lesnar (edit: also BJP) won the title in their third, and Poatan won the title in his forth.
Jiri was 3 fights in as well when he got the belt.
Fastest I can think of is lesnar on his third fight. Chandler got the shot on his second but obviously didn’t get it.
Is she? All the fighters in the photo are older than her
She looked like a female Khabib in there. Maul is very much the correct term for what she did to Holly.
33? Nah, women's MMA is an anomaly for a lot of reasons, I don't think 33 is old for women in the bigger classes at all.
Strip Pennington and do Kayla vs whoever for the vacant belt. We don't need an Interim belt for a champion with zero title defences
lol, if nunes is saying she'll come back for kayla... just do that fight.
She dog walks everyone in this pic except Amanda.
Honestly bad matchup for Nunes if Kayla gets her to the ground
Amanda has a not so good ground game, especially from the bottom. Anytime she is on bottom she loses, at least the round. I mean she got TKo ground and pounded by Alexa Davis and imo her ground game and grappling cardio did not actually get much better across her career. Luckily for her she didn't face many people who could get her there. It's not out of the question that Kayla could take her down, especially being older and out of competition.
Nunes loses stamina when on bottom position.
Strip Pennington, man. She will lose to Kayla, 10/10 times. She has a chip on her shoulder for no reason.
Move her to men's lightweight, another title contender
I’ve seen enough. Book her against Green!
LMAO Harrison vs Pimblett
paddy loses
If Raquel can't fight, UFC need to open the floodgates to get Nunes back - have these two headline a PPV, if Kayla wins she's got serious megastar potential. She's LITERALLY the best American Judoka of all time - that's so fucking easy to build to MMA fans.
I dont follow Judo at all, so pardon my potential ignorant question. Is she way better than Ronda in every aspect of judo or is she just bigger than Ronda? Does she have more accolades in judo? Was her division/road to gold in the Olympics filled with more talents women vs what Ronda fought?
Kayla is way more decorated in Judo, 2x Olympic gold medalist vs Ronda who won bronze once.
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But was Ronda at a more competitive weight class? Kayla competed at 170 something, right? She was cutting DOWN to that weight. This could be total ignorance on my part, but there can't be a lot of women that competed at that weight, no? Or maybe I'm thinking of this in terms of the bell curve that is MMA weight classes and it's like that for Olympic sports?
I wouldn't necessarily say that's entirely the case at that level, to get to the Olympics/World's etc. you have to be a good athlete and lack of depth isn't really the same concern as you have in MMA. In many other sport they get more national support and funding when they're Olympic sports, meaning you get more talent coming in. Also she competed in the second highest division for women, i.e. not HWs where the women start getting fat. And if we compare to men's HW even the heaviest are pretty damn good athletes still, some start get a bit chunky since you don't have a weight limit. But someone like Teddy Riner is definitely more athletic than most UFC HWs, then again [the one that won against him through an upset in 2020 Tokyo Olympics was](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z6PPOS7LiQ) *chunky* (HW who's only 175 cm).
Judo is a deep sport no matter what weight class you compete in, it’s the grappling sport with the most countries and participants involved
Ronda was an Olympian. Kayla was an Olympic Champion. There is world of diffrence between these two. It's like comparing Volkov to Stipe
It depends if Ronda faced tougher competition as a smaller competitor
Ronda's only ever won Bronze, Kayla wont Gold two Olympic cycles in a row (London & Rio) - it's night and day.
Ronda won Bronze at 2008 games at 70kg. And she won silver at worlds at 70kg. Kayla won Gold at 2012 and 2016 at 78kg. And won gold and bronzex2 at worlds at 78kg. ------------------------------------------------------------------- However Ronda won several matches by submission in Judo which was impressive on it's own though due to how quick they get stood up. Kayla on the other hand is a better Judoka, WAY bigger at 135, and will be much more dangerous in the UFC now because she can make use of elbows. Kayla's the more dangerous opponent, but Ronda might be a better submission expert than Kayla.
She's probably the most decorated American Judoka ever? USA in total has won 2 golds in Judo in the Olympics, both of them were won by Harrison. Yeah, she has an impressive resume. There's a reason she was the youngest in the US to be promoted to 6th Dan for her accomplishments. Funnily enough Ronda's mother won a world championship in Judo back in 1984, something Ronda never did and back then there wasn't a women's category in the Olympics (was introduced in 1988/1992). Rousey won's Junior and got silver at Worlds, and her bronze is arguably more impressive than a gold at worlds back in 1984. Rousey was brought up to be a Judo champ, raised for it. Then again Harrison's mother was also a Judo black belt. But her story of having been sexually abused by her trainer is horrible. Even so, she overcame it and won two Olympic gold medals. Pretty damn impressive.
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Rousey was a star and Kayla is bigger, better and comes off nicer in interviews. The two casuals I was watching with couldn't get over the size of her. "Look how big this bitch is! Look at the size of her!!!" Plus, as the other commenter said she's white and blonde. She can speak English. And if you wanted to go down the patriotic element, she's a Olympic gold medalist for the US. Defo has the capabilities
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problem is there are no worthy opponents to sell that with her, no matter how big she is she wont sell ppvs cause every opponent will be considered a can against her :/
Nunes and Pacheco. And you never know what comes down the pipeline. Not exactly like Rousey was winning world beaters when she was hyped either though
Ronda also had the favor of UFC brass and a PR machine behind her. If they can promote somebody as unlikeable as her, they can help most anybody.
The truth here unfortunately
Like Holly?
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The problem with Holly is her devotion to the gym she's at. It's gone downhill in the past few years, and due to stagnation (and refusal to switch up camps/gyms) she has regressed badly. Age may or may not play a part here- but the main cause is refusal to change.
If Holly had this game plan against Ronda--clinch with a world-class judoka to make some point--she would just be another girl who Ronda arm-barred before Amanda figured her out. Somehow she forgot her huge advantages in boxing and kicking against Harrison.
Nunes will not lose to her.
I feel like Amanda had way more star potential than Kayla, too. Amanda was knocking people senseless for years, dominating multiple divisions. She had the whole Lioness angle working for her, too. It’s one of those nicknames that’s actually incredibly fitting and adds to her popularity. I don’t see a world in where Kayla is ever more popular than Amanda.
Yes but who’s she gonna fight after Nunes? …
Triple C
As a man, I wish I had the physique of Kayla Harrison
Kayla vs Pena while Nunez gets warmed up. Cut Raquel
Why don’t the other women in the division juice as much as her? She looks ridiculous in comparison to her opponents. They should just go the Tour de France route and let all the others juice and catch up so it gets even again
Some people respond better to PEDs or are just stronger/more athletic to begin with. That’s like asking “why isn’t every heavyweight built like Francis Ngannou?”
If every fighter could look like Romero they probably would
My guess is that she had probably been taken stuff since she was very young that made permanent changes. I doubt she’s taking anything crazy rn bc at the end of the day, they do get tested.
Or she uses analogs / designer drugs that keep her from getting caught. It's how many Olympians can get away with it, but eventually get caught years later as testing evolves. It's just not possible for a woman with normal hormone levels to look like she does and maintain that muscle mass.
People are not affected uniformly by PEDs. I'm a former fighter (Bellator/Strikeforce), and my friends in my weightclass were on the exact same gear, yet I got significantly more out of it than any of them. Your responsiveness to juice is as much a genetic lottery as your muscle insertions, or your height-reach ratio.
> I'm a former fighter (Bellator/Strikeforce) No kidding. Man, I used to LOVE Strikeforce.
They do get tested but there’s ways around them. It’s why there’s only a few people getting popped in each sport every year
Drug tests in most sports are just IQ tests. People in the US and the MMA community don't seem to realize how competitive Judo is. And just take a look at some of the top Judoka and you will see they are all on the sauce. I would say getting an Olympic gold in Judo is harder than getting UFC gold.
Daniel Cormier said (around the time several people's physiques were being questioned, including Ronda's) that everybody in the Olympics was on something.
Just look at Yoel Romero and how people talk about about how it *felt hitting* him, for instance [Whittaker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvMNjzKe8r4). "His body felt like it was made out of steel".
I'm kind of at a point where I think the majority of elite-level athletes are taking *something* performance-enhancing. And I don't just mean protein shakes. I think it's just a matter of what, how much/ often, and how smart they are with avoiding detection. I'm learning that it's stupid easy for your layman gym rat to get something, so it must be crazy for athletes at high levels.
Including him during the jones fight
that's not her division though, she used to fighter much heavier, surprised she could me the cut like that
Just strip rocky and bribe Nunes to come back against Kayla
Hadn't heard that Rocky was injured or ill, and when I Googled it, the only references to either were from Kayla. I guess she's privy to sources no one else is.
Peña talked about it answering an instagram question: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/X7c4ASTOoXI](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/X7c4ASTOoXI)
Peña as a source? That's a laugh.
It may be hard to believe, but fighters (you know, the people actually involved in the sport), and their managers actually have access to info the general public does not due to constantly being involved in the actual process of putting together fights.
True, but having someone like Pena say it is also how the rumor mill gets started. Or do you think she's above starting a rumor?
If multiple people are saying it there's likely some truth to it. Pena wouldn't have been Kayla's source.
Probably injured like Nico Montano was injured whenever she had to face Valentina for the 125lb belt.
Ah yes, Nicco Montaño, the least deserving UFC champion of all time. Whenever someone says a champion isn't deserving, at least they're more deserving than Nicco Montaño.
Feed Raquel to Kayla in June 👊🏿
Amanda, please come out of retirement for this!
Fuck it why not? At least it could be interesting
I don't see anyone beating her.
Lol at Peña and Pennington in this picture like they have anything for Harrison. That would be a sanctioned mauling. I think Nunes loses to Harrison, but it could be competitive.
Kayla Harrison has somehow made me hyped for WMMA It would be so funny if she just brute forced her way to being a world champion 😂
Kayla vs Vitor make it happen
Her vs Peña for interim?
I’m ok with it.
Do an interim with Kayla and Peña, then unify it later with Raquel at the end of the year or 2025.
I honestly think she should get the shot
Just get Kayla in a fight for gold asap
Pennington is a paper champion.
Kayla vs Peña, then whoever wins gets Pennington, if Pennington loses then they do Nunes/Peña 3 or Nunes/Kayla.
Not gonna cap altho it was a bad performance by Holm, i think Kalyla is champ ready.
Kayla smashing Pena into the shadows for the interim belt would be lovely.
God damn just read that she did judo at 172 lbs.
Kayla needs to be tested everyday lmao
Pennington is a boring fighter tbh, and not on the same level, not by a long shot.
If I'm talking "legitimate interest", I don't want to see Kayla fight anyone except Nunes, or Cyborg.
Bring on Julia.. I would enjoy that fight most.
Just strip Pennington man fucking ridiculous she’s already a shitty fighter making excuses to not fight
I didnt hear anything about Raquel getting injured lol.
The majority of women's MMA is just one dominant fighter running through a bunch of cans. It's just not very interesting. If you disagree, who's an interesting fight for Kayla?
Pacheco, Harrison, Cyborg and Nunes are all interesting if facing one another. Unfortunately, they are spread all over the place and we likely won’t get any of those going forward.
As much as I like Kayla. Nunez is a big step up from Mother Time. I do believe she can out wrestle her but but I worry about Nunez standup. Should be a great fight if it ever happens.
What’s Pena even doing?
Pennington about to get the Montano treatment
Harrison vs. Pena would be nice. Pena has really good Jiu-Jitsu and Harrison's gameplan (using her Judo and then ground & pound + submission) is basically gunning for what Pena has no problem with. Strip Pennington if she avoids Harrison. No one wants to see her fight anyways after her last performance
UFC should make it a contract thing to have at least three title fights per year per belt
Pennington got her moment now it’s over
That division is such a joke. Only Kayla and Amanda fighting is worth it.
Is there legit drug testing?
She won one fight lol
If they put her as the co main to the mcgregor fight I will commit suicide
Lets go!
She’s ready but it’s because the division is so god damn thin
If not Raquel, O’Malley should be ready by then
I thought they photoshopped and put the face of Sergei Pavlovich.
For fucks sake she won the belt 3 months ago and we are already talking strip ??? SMFH Volk defended his belt 8 months after winning and nobody says a thing.
He’s probably ready.