Kayla Harrison will be the backup fighter for the UFC 307 co-main event. UFC 307 will take place in Salt Lake City, and the main event of this event will be the event of the women’s division. Raquel Pennington will face Ketlen Vieira in Salt Lake City at UFC 307 in the bantamweight division.
This fight will not be between ranked fighters, but the winner of this match will own the bantamweight title of the division, and the current holder of the title is Pennington. Despite being determined to beat Vieira, Harrison is warming up in case she will have to step in on behalf of one of the title contenders. Kayla Harrison had a great start in the UFC back in April, scoring her first victory with a one-sided submission. She fought against Holly Holm, who was the previous title holder, which gave her a boost, and she is up in the ranking against the winner of the championship.
Kayla Harrison Ready For the Call
In the other corner of the Octagon, we have Vieira, who has not stepped into the Octagon for more than a year. Her last fight was against Pannie Kianzad in July 2023. This is not the first time that Vieira will be fighting Pennington, this is their second fight. Vieira faced Pennington in a UFC fight the night before and lost by unanimous decision.
Before COVID-19 there was no such thing as a backup fighter but now backup fighters are necessary. After that, it became a rule that if any fighter was found to have a positive result then he/she wouldn’t be allowed to fight in the Octagon. When Pennington was given the fight against Vieira, Harrison immediately thought of this on the same night Pennington was making her title defense against Peña. Kayla Harrison said she doesn’t want anything bad to happen to either of the two fighters in the co-main event but sometimes, you never know, you might be needed.
Kayla Harrison said this in an interview with MMA Fighting: “This is fighting. We’re not playing around. When you spar, shit happens, ACLs get torn, things happen. So I’m prepared for a phone call at 3 a.m. from [UFC executive] Hunter [Campbell], ‘Hey what’s up, can you lose an extra pound?’ You’re damn right I can!”
Kayla Harrison Living In Discipline
Kayla Harrison is from the Lightweight Division and most of her career was fighting in that division. But as she heard of this match she decided to lower down to Bantamweight and started lowering her weight for 126 or 135. Kayla Harrison said this about her disciplined life in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I live a very disciplined life. But I’m grateful for it. I’m grateful for the hard moments. It just kind of makes me more dangerous, and more focused. It brings out the best version of me. It’s not easy but that performance [against Holly Holm] speaks volumes about the team that I have around me.”
Final Thoughts
Harrison has continued to train differently in the camp and has a different diet to safely hit the weight as she progresses in UFC. Her efforts were rewarded more in her first fights where she knocked out the former champion Holly Holm in two rounds at UFC 300. However, Kayla Harrison respects both of the fighters and has made it clear that she does not consider any of them a weak fighter but the only reason that she has participated is because she wants things to go smoothly.
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