Kayla Harrison defeated Ketlen Vieira via unanimous decision at UFC 307 on Saturday night. It was Harrison's second win of the year, her second win in the UFC and her second career victory at bantamweight.
Harrison, who fought most of her career above 150 pounds, has had to make a drastic weight cut since joining the UFC where bantamweight—135 pounds—is the heaviest weight class. Harrison was visibly struggling when she hit the scales ahead of her UFC debut back in April at UFC 300.
Kayla Harrison successfully weighs in at 136 pounds for #UFC300 👀 pic.twitter.com/mtR7llbumJ
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) April 12, 2024
Harrison later told Ariel Helwani she was back up around 160 pounds by the time she got to the venue the next night.
Her weight cut for UFC 307 wasn't much better. Appearing on FS1's TMZ Sports show Harrison revealed to host Michael J. Babcock that she was hospitalized. Via TMZ:
"You know, I don't like to make excuses. I had to go to the hospital the week before I was like peeing blood and there was some stuff going on. So I don't like to make excuses, but I definitely wasn't my best inside the cage Saturday night. And I know I can, be better and grow from it."
Harrison certainly isn't the first fighter to be in this situation, but that doesn't make it less disturbing to hear about it. Fighting in the UFC is dangerous enough. Putting yourself through such a drastic weight fluctuation ahead of a fight seems like the kind of thing that will eventually catch up with someone.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Kayla Harrison Was Hospitalized the Week Before Making Weight at UFC 307.
