Kayla Harrison isn’t buying into the narrative surrounding Ronda Rousey’s return to MMA, especially after the recent event announcement.
Rousey is set to headline MVP MMA 1 on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, marking her first fight in nearly eight years. The rest of the card was confirmed last week and has sparked plenty of discussion online.
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The full lineup led to some early comparisons between MVP MMA 1 and the UFC White House card, which takes place in June. Harrison, who would have defended her title on that same card if not for an injury, has already weighed in on the debate.
Kayla Harrison has no interest in being polite about Ronda Rousey’s return
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Rousey and Harrison faced each other in judo long before they made their marks in MMA, although it was in separate eras of the sport.
Harrison made her feelings clear when speaking to Jorge Masvidal on the Death Row MMA podcast. When asked about her “old mentor” returning to action, she said: “I don’t think we should talk about this because I don’t think I have anything nice to say.”
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She went on to criticise some of Rousey’s recent comments, particularly calling her fight with Gina Carano the best female fight of all time.
“She [Gina Carano] hasn’t fought in 17 years, like shut up,” Harrison continued. She also mentioned that their teammate Chris Duncan didn’t understand what all the talk was about because Rousey is “so f—— irrelevant.”
The two-time Olympic gold medallist also shared an update on her recovery from neck surgery earlier this year.
Johnny Eblen had mentioned to Bloody Elbow that Harrison was already back training, but she clarified that she’ll only start drilling again if a CT scan next week goes well.
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If things continue to progress as expected, she hopes to be back sparring several weeks after that.
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