5 thoughts about Kayla Harrison's blockbuster move to UFC

Kayla Harrison is finally Octagon bound.

Harrison, one of the top women's fighters in the world, is leaving the PFL to join the UFC and will make her debut against former champion Holly Holm at UFC 300 on April 13. The fight will be Harrison's first as a bantamweight.

Signing a deal with MMA's biggest promotion was several years in the making for Harrison. The two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo became a highly coveted free agent in 2021. She received an offer from the UFC but re-signed with the PFL. Now, more than two years later, Harrison has decided to jump ship.

Here are some thoughts about the massive news, including what it means for Harrison's career, the UFC and its women's bantamweight division, and the PFL.

1. Harrison signing with the UFC is one of the biggest plot twists in recent memory. Everybody, even some of the biggest insiders in the sport, was surprised to hear that Harrison is headed to the Octagon. All signs pointed to the 33-year-old staying with the PFL for the foreseeable future, with big fights against Cris Cyborg and Larissa Pacheco potentially in the cards for 2024. This is the year that PFL plans to ramp up its PPV Super Fight division, and Harrison was supposed to be a big part of that.

Plus, there had been conflicting reports about Harrison's contract status with the PFL. No one knew if a move to a different promotion was possible, never mind imminent. Harrison recently teased she was a free agent, but PFL chairman Donn Davis said last week that Harrison had one more fight left on her deal.

Last year didn't go as planned for Harrison, as she skipped the 2023 season to focus on big pay-per-view fights and ended up only stepping into the cage once - against short-notice replacement Aspen Ladd at the PFL championship event in November. Perhaps that left a sour taste in Harrison's mouth, but either way, the American Top Team product's UFC signing was a shock.

2. Making 135 pounds will be the biggest challenge for Harrison. The most eye-opening piece of information from UFC CEO Dana White's announcement Tuesday night was that Harrison will be making her debut against Holm in a women's bantamweight contest. All but two of Harrison's 17 professional bouts have been at lightweight - the others were at featherweight and a 150-pound catchweight. And Harrison has spoken out against weight cutting in the past. This will be the first time she tries to compete at bantamweight, and given she has said before that cutting to 145 pounds was difficult, it's a big ask.

Harrison competed at 172 pounds throughout most of her judo career, including in the Olympics. The closest she has been to the bantamweight limit - at least in the last decade and a half - was 139 pounds as a youth judoka in 2008.

Can Harrison, at the age of 33, make 135 pounds to fight in the UFC? Consistently? No one really knows. It'll be difficult no matter what. But an athlete as dedicated as Harrison will absolutely give it her best shot.

3. Harrison is exactly who the UFC women's bantamweight division needs. This couldn't have come at a better time. A new era began at 135 pounds last weekend, with Raquel Pennington capturing the vacant title by defeating Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 in Toronto. Amanda Nunes retired last year, relinquishing the women's bantamweight and featherweight titles.

However, before Harrison's signing, the future of women's bantamweight had never looked bleaker. Some people even suggested that the UFC close the division. Pennington has been in the UFC since 2013 and has fought many of the top-10 contenders already. "Rocky" lost to Nunes in a 2018 title fight and would be a huge underdog if Nunes came back to try to regain the belt. And there aren't many young women's bantamweights on the rise. Only two fighters in the top 15 are younger than 30.

But Harrison could give some life to the women's bantamweight division. If she can safely make the 135-pound limit, and if she beats Holm to set up a title fight against either Pennington or Julianna Pena, Harrison might quickly become the face of the division. Harrison, a dominant wrestler who has 12 finishes in 16 pro fights, could be the UFC's next Nunes or Ronda Rousey.

4. A fight between Harrison and Cyborg is unlikely to ever happen. This is the matchup people wanted to see the most when the PFL acquired Bellator in late 2023. It's been talked about for years, but for the longest time, Harrison and Cyborg were in different organizations, and it couldn't come to fruition. Cyborg is the reigning Bellator women's featherweight champion and is now under contract with the PFL following the sale. But with Harrison headed to the UFC, a lot would have to happen for a fight with Cyborg to be a possibility again. Unfortunately, this might be the newest Khabib-Ferguson.

It's a big blow to the PFL because Cyborg-Harrison was one of the biggest fights the promotion could've booked in 2024 - bigger than any of the champion-versus-champion fights scheduled for Feb. 24 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. If the PFL gets lucky, it'll get to promote fights involving Francis Ngannou and Jake Paul this year. But losing Cyborg-Harrison (and Harrison in general) still hurts.

5. We'll learn whether or not Harrison is a real star once she's fighting in the UFC. Ever since Harrison began fighting in 2018, many have made her out to be one of the biggest names in the sport. But Harrison isn't a proven pay-per-view draw yet. She's not even close to being as big as the likes of Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, or Sean O'Malley. However, Harrison has never fought on the sport's biggest stage: the UFC. She's never had the biggest marketing machine in MMA try to turn her into a superstar.

Now that Harrison is on the UFC roster, it'll become clear over the next few years whether or not the former Olympian has what it takes to be a major draw in MMA.