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Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, world-renowned Judoka and MMA fighter Kayla Harrison opened up on the performance-enhancing drugs (PED) accusations levied against her by certain sections of the MMA community.
Kayla Harrison asserted that she finds the PED-usage accusations against her to be offensive. Harrison added that she’s been tested by USADA since she was just 13 years of age.
Kayla Harrison made a huge statement with her recent win at Invicta FC 43
Judo superstar Kayla Harrison made her MMA debut in 2018. In merely two years as a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter, Harrison has amassed an impressive record of eight wins and no losses.
Harrison is best known for competing in the lightweight division, but made her featherweight debut earlier this month. She secured a terrifyingly vicious second-round TKO victory over Courtney King at Invicta FC 43 on November 20th, 2020.
All of Harrison’s previous fights were contested under the PFL (Professional Fighters League) promotional banner. However, since the PFL’s 2020 season was postponed to next year due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, the PFL permitted her to compete for Invicta FC.
As noted, Harrison’s aforementioned fight at Invicta FC 43 was also her first MMA bout in the featherweight division. That, in turn, has set the combat sports world abuzz with speculation regarding Harrison potentially joining the UFC roster.
The UFC currently doesn’t have a women’s lightweight division. Nevertheless, now that Harrison has made her featherweight debut and indicated that she could continue taking fights at featherweight, a move to the UFC seems like a realistic possibility.
Kayla Harrison fires back at her accusers; reiterates she’s never used banned PEDs
Ariel Helwani addressed Kayla Harrison’s amazing win at Invicta FC 43, adding that the only negative thing to come out of it was certain fans accusing her of being on PEDs. Harrison weighed in on the same and stated –
“Yeah, can we talk about this for a second...It really hurts my feelings. I mean; doesn’t hurt my feelings, but it just like, it does get under my skin, man. Like, uh, everyone’s always like, ‘You should take that as a compliment. You should take it as a compliment that people think you’re on steroids’. And I’m like, ‘Are you reading the things that these (people are calling me)?’ They’re calling me a man. They’re calling me Brock Lesnar. They’re calling me like.” Harrison smiled and continued.
“And I’m like, ‘First of all, I literally have been tested by USADA since I was 13 years old.’ They came to my middle school because I was on the national roster for Judo when I was 13. I made my first Olympic trials when I was 14. I’ve been getting drug tested by USADA since I was 13 years old. And I didn’t always look like this, by the way. I remember, before I started Judo, there was like a picture of me. I was a little kid. And I was kind of like a little butterball. I wasn’t fat, but I was like, you know, a little chubby. And I was like six or seven in the picture. And then I started doing Judo and I loved Judo.”
“I loved everything about it. And literally, there’s a picture of me; I don’t know, it’s from my 10th birthday or something. And my birthday is in July. And I’m in a bikini, like a little girl bikini, and I’ve got like traps, and I’ve got like biceps. And I’m like this jacked little kid. Like, I developed these muscles over years of training.”
“And I really wanna like contact USADA and I wanna be like, ‘Hey, can I get a record of all of my tests that I have ever taken. Is that possible? Like, do you have a…You must have it. Can I get that? Can I get a copy of that? Because I really wanna just, like, post it up, you know?” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
