Gregory Payan/Associated Press
Kayla Harrison defeated Cindy Dandois via first-round submission (armbar) in a lightweight matchup to cap off the Professional Fighters’ League (PFL) 6 main card from Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Friday.
Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medal-winning judoka (78 kg). She also won gold at the 2010 World Championships. Her all-time judo record is 45-7, capped by a gold-medal match win over France’s Audrey Tcheumeo in 2016.
Two years later, she moved onto mixed martial arts, where she’s gone 10-0.
The 30-year-old was not looking forward to facing Dandois in a rare moment of humility and honesty not usually seen before big fights from competitors.
“Well, to be honest, I was not super pumped about it,” Harrison told Simon Samano and Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie.
“This is the one girl I didn’t want to fight—not stylistically or anything. I listened to an interview that she did where, I don’t know, she has six kids, and her mom just died of cancer, and this is her last hurrah. And I was like, ‘Damn, I really don’t want to put the nail in the coffin.'”
Dandois, 36, spoke with Nicole Bosco of FanSided in that aforementioned interview:
Harrison knew she had to go out there and “do business,” though.
“It is what it is,” she said. “I’m not in charge of the matchups, I’m not in charge of matchmaking, so it’s time to go out there and do business.”
Dandois is an accomplished fighter herself, entering Friday 16-6 in her MMA career with nine submissions and four knockouts. She had won eight of her previous 10 matches before losing to Kaitlin Young via unanimous decision May 6.
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