The war of words between Olympic judo medalists turned MMA stars Ronda Rousey and Kayla Harrison continues to escalate.
Rousey won bronze at the 2008 Olympics, while Harrison took gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Rousey went on to become the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, and now Harrison has that same belt. Kayla is expected to fight Amanda Nunes later this year, who beat the brakes off Ronda. If Harrison beats Nunes, it’d be hard to argue that she hasn’t once again surpassed Rousey.
In a new
interview during this weekend’s UFC Fight Night: Sterling vs. Zalal event, Kayla suggested that’s at the heart of Ronda’s aggressive responses towards her.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone to come in and beat everything I’ve ever done,” Harrison said with a big smile. “That would probably be hard.”
Harrison then threw back her own barbs, accusing Rousey of setting up a money grab comeback fight against Gina Carano on May 16th.
“The part that bothers me the most about Ronda is at one point, she was a real athlete,” Kayla said. “She was training for the Olympics. She’s an Olympic bronze medalist. She became UFC champion. She was really trying to chase greatness, and I will never take away the fact that Ronda is probably the most important female fighter. If it weren’t for her, for sure, I wouldn’t be where I’m at. I wouldn’t have a job.”
“But this fight is not the greatest fight of all time,” she continued. “It’s between someone who hasn’t fought in ten years and is coming off two knockout losses, and another woman who is — again, another legend, another pioneer — but hasn’t fought in seventeen years and is in her forties. So don’t call it the greatest fight of all time. I’m chasing greatness. You’re chasing money. We’re different.”
It’s too bad we’ll probably never get to see Ronda Rousey and Kayla Harrison fight. Not only does Rousey seem intent on burning bridges with the UFC and parent company TKO, she’s said it’s over after May 16th unless a rematch with Carano is needed for some reason. She’s adamant that she’ll retire and go have more kids.
As for Kayla Harrison, her days of competition may be numbered as well. Following emergency neck surgery, she’s sounded a lot less interested in continuing to risk her health to compete. She went so far as to say she’ll walk away from the bantamweight belt after the Nunes fight. If there’s no featherweight option to compete in, that’ll be a wrap.
There’s clearly gonna be a lot of debate over who is the better MMA fighter: Harrison or Rousey. It seems crazy that we won’t get to see them settle that debate in the cage.
