Kayla Harrison entered the UFC as a storm that cannot be messed with. She made her promotional debut at UFC 300 and took no time to deliver a dominant performance against a veteran in Holly Holm, submitting ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ in RD2 within the first ten minutes of their bout. Following that, she delivered yet another emphatic performance as she beat Ketlen Vieira by a unanimous decision.

After two sensational performances, she was announced as a challenger to Pena’s throne. An announcement, not many, it seems, can digest. The announcement led to the allegations against the UFC, of them using Harrison as an industry plant.

The American-based former Judoka is more than just a mixed-martial artist. Long before she stepped a foot inside an octagon, she was already a nationally recognized athlete. Her accolades include the 2010 World Judo Championship, gold medals in Judo at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, and in 2023, she was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.

Now, she doesn’t shies away from showing her pedigree inside the Octagon. Through her past accomplishments, her legendary run at PFL, and now her impressive performances in the UFC, the MMA community sees Harrison as the woman who will revive the sport for women.

With a co-main event set in the making for Kayla Harrison against Juliana Pena at UFC 316, it seemed her path was on a rather perfect straight. However, the UFC has been accused of using the fighter as an industry plant.

However the UFC deals with it, Kayla Harrison finds herself in the middle of this controversy. Her opponent and women’s bantamweight champion Juliana Pena, too, believes she is skipping the line over many fighters for her bout at UFC 316. Harrison, while addressing these issues rejected the claims made by her critics, but it surely adds to the pressure on her performance when she ends up facing Pena.

As the UFC CEO and President Dana White look forward to deal with this controversy, in a heroic way, the MMA community has stood forward to defend the organization and Kayla Harrison.

Fans build a united front for Kayla Harrison

Kayla Harrison has been on the MMA radar for quite a while now. Even when she was a fighter in PFL, she was able to gather fifteen wins with just one loss on her record. The whole MMA community was left wondering about her fighting the top-tier females in the UFC. Fast forward to now, Harrison is on the verge of completing every UFC fighter’s main goal in the organization, holding the UFC belt.

The allegations on the UFC and Harrison following her title fight announcement was defended by many of the MMA community, as one said: “She’s it by default. Unfortunately women 135 and over in MMA is a wasteland. You really only have a handful of really elite fighters at those weights.” and another one said: “Besides Cyborg and Nunes she’s been it at #3 for many years I don’t understand industry plant in this context.” Highlighting the lack of fresh and exciting competition in the women’s divisions in the UFC. Even a poll was set in the comments that asking the fans if she is indeed an industry plant or not for which 28.6% of the voters thought of her as an industry plant and a staggering 72.4% genuinely admired  the fighter for her accolades and performances.

With appreciation also comes criticism, and this lot too, had it’s own set of critics of Harrison. One man who chose not vote in the polls commented: “Neither lol.” showing his disregard for the Judo expert, while another one joined him saying: “Yeah that deserves a mute.” Even with some critical comments, any viewer of this comment section can see how much admiration the MMA community has for Kayla Harrison, with 71% of the polled fans voting: “I love to watch her fight“. If by any chance, she gets to see such posts amid the controversy, it will surely put a smile on her face.

With this controversy, fans have ensured they want to see new contenders and challengers fight for the belt, rather than being fed the same recycled production time and time again, and Harrison is their perfect protagonist in the arc. So can Kayla Harrison dominate her way through Pena and win the UFC Bantamweight title? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.