Top Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight title challenger Kayla Harrison’s body is not reacting well to her weight cuts.
According to an interview with TMZ on Monday, recent victor Harrison (18-1) admitted that a week before UFC 307, she was forced to go to the hospital. The two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, who competed at 172 pounds in the games and 155 pounds while in Professional Fighters League, has struggled greatly to reach the 136-pound cap. Despite the issues, Harrison still defeated Ketlen Vieira on the scorecards to likely claim a shot at 135-pound gold. It was not all sunshine and rainbows for the judoka.
“I’m still learning, I’m still growing,” the 34-year-old told TMZ. “I feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement for me, it definitely wasn’t my best night in the cage. There are a lot of things that happened…I don’t like to make excuses, but I had to go to the hospital the week before, I was peeing blood and there was some stuff going on.”
MMA reporter Kevin Iole remarked on Monday that the promotion was made aware of these issues, as per her manager, Ali Abdelaziz. She was also said to have been taking antibiotics as well. After dealing with those issues, Harrison managed to stay on track, reach 136 pounds and win her fight. The victorious bantamweight suggested that she might need a little time to recuperate after this camp, however.
“I want to take a little time off…just because of the weight cut and the process that it is for my body,” Harrison admitted. “I’m just not built to weigh 135 pounds. Any time I get under the 150s, it’s not pleasant…every time I do it, the first time was fear of, ‘Can I do it?’ This time, it was fear of, ‘Oh God, I have to do it,’ the anticipation. But I’m blessed, I have such a good team, and I’m very lucky that even my mom comes down and hangs out with the kids, because I have to do…I’m working out like two extra hours a day, 12 weeks out, it’s a lot.”
When asked about her in-cage condition after a harsh weight cut, Harrison responded that she still felt comfortable and in good shape when competing.
“I feel great the next day [after finishing the weight cut], I’m fine,” she stated. “I mean if anything this time, I ate too much. I am so hungry after I weigh in, I’ve been dieting for 12 weeks and cutting my calories and then doing the water cut. So I have this, ‘I need to eat’ mentality, and I ate too much, and I actually felt a little bit sick when I was warming up. I was…I think that’s another reason why I was flat-footed, I just ate too much and I have to keep the level of discipline until after the fight, and not until after the weigh-in. I stopped a little early.”
