“(I’m going to) enjoy the moment, live in the moment and never say never - but right now, the answer is no to MMA.”
On Tuesday Harrison said yes, announcing she signed with promotion World Series of Fighting, and would be a broadcaster and ambassador for the brand while she trains for her first professional fight.
Harrison left hints she was leaning toward MMA for months, acknowledging talks with multiple organizations, a desire to do jujitsu, the default martial art for the octagon — which is less physically taxing than judo (where judo players and fans hope she will continue a tight relationship) - and told an MMA webcast last week if she were to fight, she’d fight at 145 pounds.
Sherdog.com said Harrison expects to train for a year before her first fight. The former Middie is making all the right moves.
She didn’t sign with UFC, where she would be pushed to get into the cage as soon as possible. The premier 145-pound women’s fighter in the world is Cristiano “Cyborg” Justino, who is a rhetorical rival of Harrison’s friend and former judo partner Ronda Rousey. Cyborg versus a two-time Olympic gold medalist would be as massive draw and the pressure would have been on Harrison to fight Justino the moment she John Hancock-ed her contract.
Harrison, who said she already missed competing, was willing to do MMA, but on wisely on her own terms.
World Series of Fighting isn’t UFC, but it has a deal with NBC and its owner is a former president of NBC Universal Sports. As Bellator has shown, fighting can get ratings, even if it isn’t UFC. Harrison has a chance to raise the profile of WSOF as well as dictating her own profile.
Reaction from judokans in the U.S. on Twitter, message boards and Reddit was decidedly mixed. Many hoped she would devote full-time to USA Judo, which some have accused of corruption. Many hardcore martial artists aren’t keen on UFC and the “mixed” in mixed-martial arts, and not fans of the fight game. Some hope her MMA career will lead to growth in judo in the U.S., which has fallen in recent years, while others hope judo doesn’t suffer a “McDojo” effect that led to jujitsu and Muay Thai kickboxing joints in every town when UFC began hitting its stride in the mid-2000s.
Harrison has already made history, and given her athletic ability, pure strength and mastery of one of the top martial arts in the world, she’s going to be a force in MMA. The prognisticators and arm-chair cage fighters will say she will need years of training in boxing and jujitsu. As Oscar Meyer would say — baloney. Learning other aspects will be a plus, but her background as the greatest judokan in the U.S. is something no one else can carry into a cage or ring. Whether she fights tomorrow, in a year, or whenever, Harrison will be a force.
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