Kayla Harrison is taking her first MMA loss at the chin.
On Friday, Harrison suffered her first professional defeat, losing a unanimous choice to Larissa Pacheco inside the lightweight tournament final at the 2022 PFL Championships in the big apple city. It changed into a shocking loss for the two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka, and in the aftermath, Harrison provided no excuses for what took place.
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“I’m not able thankful for the opportunity to do what I like every day,” Harrison stated at the publish-combat press conference. “I didn’t get the result that I desired tonight. Larissa was the better fighter. I don’t have an excuse, I don’t have a purpose. I consider my crew, and I agree with my preparation. I feel like we did the entirety right to put together for this combat, and it simply didn’t go my manner tonight. I made a few tactical mistakes. A lot to work on. Failure is inevitable. Some days you’re the nail, and a few days you’re the hammer. I sense like I’ve been the hammer for some time, and nowadays, I am skilled at being the nail. That is an opportunity for me to develop as a fighter and as someone. …
“I’m very lucky that this isn’t the primary time I’ve lost in lifestyles or a recreation putting,” Harrison persisted. “I’ve lost often in judo. It’s a touch of kind in MMA. It’s the arena’s biggest stage. I simply misplaced my title, so that hurts. It’s going to hurt for some time. However it’s additionally kind of silly, right? I’m no longer curing most cancers, I’m no longer converting the world. What I do may be very egocentric, and I do it because I like it. And once more, I’m thankful for my group, for all people who make sacrifices for me, they’re far away from their households at some point during the vacations, and they’re inside the gymnasium with me each day, installing the paintings just as a lot as I am. I’m grateful for my family, for all of the sacrifices they made for me to be right here, and for my youngsters, and I know that I have a blessed life. So even though it hurts, I realize that I’ll come lower back more potent.”
Before the loss, Harrison become 15-0 in MMA and had two times earlier gained the PFL event, along with two dominant wins over Pacheco. The flip of events hit the previous champion hard as she fought back tears a couple of times at some point during the click conference. However, she stated she wanted to talk in a while to set an example for her kids and for others who would possibly appear up to her.
“I simply think that I communicate a lot about legacy, and to me, my legacy isn’t just what I do inner of the cage but how I convey myself outside of the cage,” Harrison said. “I consider what I want my kids to understand, and I’m not ashamed of myself this night. I’m proud. I went accessible, I fought, and I misplaced, however, I’m able to preserve my head excessively and deliver myself with dignity. I assume that an actual champion indicates up in the desirable times and the awful, and I need children everywhere to know that, pay attention, I fell this night. I fell flat on my face. I misplaced it in front of the complete international, and it hurts. It’s going to harm for a while. But it’s also a possibility for increase, it’s an opportunity for me to turn out to be a higher fighter, a better person, and this is a part of my legacy. Not just the wins, but what I do throughout the losses as nicely.”
Even though Harrison and Pacheco had fought two times before, this turned into by way of far their most entertaining contest: a 25-minute returned-and-forth warfare that saw the scorecards tied at two rounds apiece heading into the very last stanza. Harrison stated she knew she had to win the fifth spherical to seal the combat but surely became not able to achieve this inside the face of a dramatically progressed Pacheco.
“I felt like I had to win the fifth round,” Harrison stated. “She became doing extra damage than me. Even on the ground, some of the photographs from the bottom I used to be like, what the hell just hit me? I felt like I had to discover a manner, and I used to even think about that before the combat. ‘Twenty-five tough minutes, I’ve got to discover a way.’ and that I just didn’t discover a way tonight…
“She becomes simply extraordinarily physical in this combat. I experience it as I turned into a special person there, to be honest. I don’t recognize it. She turned much bigger, a good deal stronger than I recalled. A good deal more affected person. There have been a couple of instances she flurried and blitzed, but she saved her conditioning properly. She did an incredible process. She’s a champion.”
The loss now raises questions on what’s next for Harrison, who handiest has fights left on her current PFL deal. The 32-yr-vintage fighter said she had been supposed to take a few break days after this fight, however, suggested that the loss may trade that, and also mentioned that she desires the chance to avenge the loss sooner or later. Due to the fact even though this isn’t the first loss she’s ever suffered, Harrison stated it’s nevertheless each bit as painful as any of her preceding ones.
“It’s special within the sense that there’s $1 million on the road, and that I sense like I’m the face of the promotion, so I dropped the ball a bit bit,” Harrison said. “but dropping is dropping. For me, it’s like I need to move slowly out of my pores and skin. I will stand it. So it’s painful.”
