Kayla Harrison is able to look back on her past and see it as a road that has well prepared for a potentially cathartic outcome here this weekend. Harrison will do battle for bantamweight gold against defending champion Julianna Pena in the co-main event of UFC 316 on June 7th. The multi time PFL champion and multi-time Olympic gold medalist will look to unseat the multi-time UFC bantamweight champion in what is a massive night for the 135 pound weight classes. Men's bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili taking on Sean O'Malley in a rematch serves as the PPV closer on the night after Harrison vs. Pena.
As part of the embedded series heading into UFC 316, Harrison was documented getting reflective about her journey as she heads into her first opportunity at UFC gold as a massive betting favorite. As she let the MMA community into her mindset leading into this championship opportunity, Harrison said, “I’ve spent a lifetime chasing my dreams. You know, I think when I was younger, I definitely competed from a place of fear. I always felt like, in order to be worthy of love, I needed to win and be this perfect thing."
Kayla Harrison Talks FreedomAhead of UFC 316
Kayla Harrison no longer pursues flawlessness in her approach to seemingly all things in her life and centers the three F's in her existence at this point in her journey. As she expounded upon this, Kayla Harrison quipped, "Perfection is unattainable, but I don’t operate from that place anymore. It’s peace. I had a very ugly, nasty road to get to that kind of awakening and to that kind of peace—and everyone does. You’ve got to go through hell to get to heaven, you know?"
"I have so much more to my life now, and this is what I do, but it’s not who I am. Which gives me a freedom to be—I don’t know—fearless. I just go out there and have fun.”
