Kayla Harrison’s second bout of the Professional Fighters League common season unfolded as predictably because the betting odds — tilted closely in her favor — steered.
Harrison, who has gained the P.F.L.’s ladies’s light-weight title every of the final two seasons, wanted solely two minutes, 35 seconds, one physique slam and a sequence of punches on Friday night time to dispatch Kaitlin Young and qualify for the postseason.
On Aug. 20 in London, Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, will face Martina Jindrova for a berth within the P.F.L. last.
Beyond that combat, the prospects of a high-profile match with both Amanda Nunes or Cristiane Justino (a.ok.a. “Cris Cyborg”), the 2 best-known fighters in Harrison’s weight vary, stay murky. Nunes is beneath contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is slated to face Julianna Peña on July 30, and Justino is aligned with the blended martial arts promotion Bellator.
A sequence of fights involving Harrison, Nunes and Justino stays an alluring, if distant, risk, and Donn Davis, the P.F.L.’s chairman and co-owner, maintains he would promote an occasion collectively with Bellator or the U.F.C. But for now, present contracts take priority, and Harrison stated she is targeted on reworking herself from a judo professional into an all-around blended martial artist.
“I’m just a much more evolved fighter. I’m a much more evolved person,” Harrison stated at a information convention earlier than the combat. “Every day I get a little bit better, and I’m still just scratching the surface.”
Harrison, who’s now 14-0 in skilled M.M.A., had been slated to face Julia Budd, whose kickboxing experience steered she could be Harrison’s hardest professional opponent but. But Budd withdrew from the bout after an harm late in coaching camp, and the P.F.L. changed her with the 36-year-old Young, who entered Friday’s bout with a 12-12-1 report.
After touching gloves on the opening bell, the fighters circled one another cautiously. Harrison, in a southpaw stance, crept ahead, feinting and gauging Young’s reactions.
And then she charged, bulling Young into the fence earlier than slamming her to the mat. Then got here a grappling sequence, which favored Harrison, the judo professional, and eventually the punches that prompted the referee to cease the bout.
“The goal is to go out and dominate,” Harrison, who turned 32 on Saturday, stated in a tv interview after the bout. “Sometimes you just feel it.”
Early within the combat, which occurred on the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta, broadcasters famous the lopsided betting odds, and stated one gambler had wagered $2.7 million on a Harrison win.
Given the circumstances — a two-time Olympic champion in opposition to a last-minute alternative — that seven-figure pledge was much less a wager than an funding. Just earlier than the opening bell, oddsmakers listed Harrison as a minus-6,000 favourite, that means a $6,000 wager would yield a $100 payoff. At these odds, the $2.7 million wager would have netted $45,000.
The P.F.L. hopes the cash it has poured into Harrison’s profession can pay comparable dividends over the long run.
Harrison’s contract covers two seasons and pays her roughly $1 million per bout. Back-of-the-napkin math suggests she made about $6,450 per second on Friday night time, when you don’t rely the time she spent coaching. The P.F.L. figures the cash is value it contemplating the enhance Harrison lends to the P.F.L.’s profile.
The U.F.C. is to M.M.A. what the N.F.L. is to professional soccer — the largest model and moneymaker, and the undisputed trade chief. In 2016, the expertise company Endeavor paid $4.2 billion for a majority stake within the combat promotion, and the corporate is now concentrating on a $10 billion valuation.
The P.F.L. goals to solidify its place in second place.
While the U.F.C. will stage its July 30 occasion on the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the P.F.L. held its current Dallas-area combat card at a 2,500-seat enviornment in Arlington.
Davis factors out that the P.F.L.’s broadcast partnership with ESPN offers it the identical broad distribution that the U.F.C. enjoys, however acknowledges that it’s an underdog that advantages from having Harrison beneath contract. He says Harrison is poised to develop into the game’s subsequent brand-name fighter.
“Imagine if the U.S.F.L. had discovered and developed Tom Brady,” Davis stated in an interview earlier than the combat, referring to the United States Football League.
Still, the bouts that might vault Harrison and the P.F.L. to new ranges of prominence stay elusive and hypothetical.
Nunes, Harrison’s former coaching companion, has stated she welcomes a bout, offered Harrison indicators with the U.F.C. And Nunes is herself a former champion, scheduled for a July 30 rematch with Peña, who gained the U.F.C. featherweight title from her final December.
Justino, who final competed in April, is reportedly negotiating a boxing match in opposition to undisputed light-weight boxing champion Katie Taylor.
“I’ve been coaching and training boxing for one fight. I’m looking for one fight,” Justino told reporters after her most up-to-date M.M.A. bout. “I’ve done everything. I did wrestling. I did jujitsu. I did a muay Thai fight. It’s the only one I haven’t done, is boxing. It’s one of my dreams.”
Next up for Harrison is the semifinal bout in opposition to Jindrova and, doubtlessly, a spot within the 2022 P.F.L. last.
The solely assure past these bouts: yet one more season on Harrison’s P.F.L. contact.
