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Olympic Judo Gold Medalist Kayla Harrison Considering Move to MMA

Olympic Judo Gold Medalist Kayla Harrison Considering Move to MMA

 

 

Kayla Harrison is an American judoka. She won the Junior World Championship in 2008, and was runner-up in 2009. In 2010 she won the World Judo Championships, and in 2012 she was the gold medalist at the London Olympics in the women’s −78 kg division.

Born in Middletown, Ohio, Harrison took up judo at the age of six, having been introduced to the sport by her mother, who was a black belt. She began training under coach Daniel Doyle, and won two national championships by the age of 15. However, during that period Doyle was abusing Harrison, who reported it to another judoka, who in turn told Harrison’s mother. She subsequently reported this to the police. Doyle was convicted and sentenced to a ten-year prison term. A month after the abuse was revealed, she moved away from her home in Boston to train with Jimmy Pedro and his father.

There has been a lot of talk of Harrison transitioning to MMA after the 2016 Rio Olympics.

 

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Harrison told NBC Sports as she spoke about former training partner Ronda Rousey:

“I actually miss it,” . “I miss having a girl to train with who hates to lose as much as me.”

“Kayla very much cared — practice, competition, she had that deep caring about how she did,” Rousey said. “What really made her stand out the most was how important it was to her, to see how passionate she was about it.”

“We go back and forth. It’s pretty tempting at times. Who doesn’t want to be famous? Who doesn’t want to be rich? Who doesn’t yearn for all of those things at some point in their life?”

About transitioning to MMA:

 

“Who knows, maybe after Rio, [MMA] is what I’ll want to do.”

She is not sure if she will be as confident in front of cameras as Rousey is:

 

“I just don’t know if it’s for me, quite honestly. I’m not as confident as Ronda in front of the media. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but I’m not a showboater. I don’t think I would be very good at putting on a show or talking trash.”