Kayla Harrison’s 2023 Plans Already Awry?
2022 PFL 10 Championships at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on Friday, November 25, 2022. (Denis Kennedy / PFL)
By Eddie Sanchez
2022 has been an interesting year for combat sports for a multitude of reasons. In many ways, this year can be defined by the vast amount of predetermined outcomes (those largely defined by the most casual of fans and the betting public) being turned over on their head.
One can easily point to Canelo Alvarez losing to Dmitry Bivol, as well as Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya each getting knocked out in the final rounds of fights they were winning to Leon Edwards and Alex Periera respectively.
The unbeatable has fallen again.
Larissa Pacheco defeated Kayla Harrison in the finale of the PFL playoffs for the 2022 season. Larissa snatched Kayla’s opportunity at earning a third PFL title and additional $1,000,000 prize.
There is no shame in losing. Everyone loses. Even greats like Floyd Mayweather who boasts his undefeated professional record, lost a controversial decision in the Olympics in 1996. He has also been accused of strategic scheduling to avoid (or at least lessen) the likelihood of meeting.
Alternative conversations aside, the 2023 outlook for Kayla Harrison is going to be an interesting one. Kayla Harrison has lost her marketable “0,” and now will be subjected to a rematch with Larissa Pacheco.
This is not a poor circumstance to find herself in within a vacuum, though her plans to strictly fight in “marquee” fights during 2023, and avoid the 2023 regular season altogether, might have been thrown slightly off course. Larissa likely doesn’t have the same luxury (though her marketability will surely increase from this victory) to avoid the regular season and subsequent opportunity to earn a hefty seven-figure prize.
Assuming the two women face off for their third time next year, the likelihood of Harrison also facing Bellator MMA’s Cris Cyborg is miniscule given the expected reluctance from the PFL. The budding MMA league has just seen their star power earn a scar, so it would be fair to hypothesize that they will be less than enthusiastic to (1) share profits with another organization for a superfight when they now have their own organically created in-house, and (2) risk Harrison losing a second time (especially to an outside party).
The expected internal pressures, and champion-mindset might force her hand to enter the 2023 regular season. While debatable, one can easily see the justification for her.
There are plenty of months to debate the future of Kayla Harrison’s immediate future. Fight fans were offered a good old fashioned upset; now we have the opportunity for a classic comeback story. While 2022 has been defined by upsets to some of the most popular fighters in combat sports, 2023 will be defined by comeback tours.
