The ongoing war of words between UFC women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison and former champ Ronda Rousey shows no signs of cooling off.
Harrison and Rousey know each other well as they were training partners during their decorated judo careers, during which Rousey became the first American to make it to the podium in the Olympics in the sport when she won a bronze medal in 2008, while Harrison went on to win gold in both 2012 and 2016.
They’ve both gone on to have great success in MMA too, with Rousey becoming a genuine global superstar during her famous UFC title-winning run, while Harrison was a two-time $1 million PFL tournament winner and has since fought her way to the UFC 135lb title.
However, tension between the two has ramped up considerably since Rousey emerged from retirement earlier this year for a blockbuster fight with Gina Carano on Netflix next month.
At the same time Harrison has been recovering from neck surgery while waiting for what’s been dubbed as the biggest women’s MMA fight of all-time against returning former double-champ Amanda Nunes, who infamously swiftly TKO’d Rousey in her final UFC fight.
Rousey recently repeatedly called Harrison a “b*tch”, belittled her charisma and emphasized that her upcoming fight would be bigger and better paid after Harrison stated that her rival was lying about a past judo training story and questioned why ‘Rowdy’s’ Netflix bout was being billed as the greatest of all-time.
Now in a new interview prior to this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night 274 event, Harrison has returned fire by insisting that Rousey’s words are purely motivated by jealousy.
“I’m just going to go ahead and say I could be meaner,” Harrison said at Saturday night’s event on Paramount+. “I think that it would be really hard, I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone to come in and beat everything I’ve ever done. That would be hard. I get it.
“Imagine hating me and I’m just over here in my backyard feeding chickens. It’s got to be rough.”
Harrison then upped the ante by stating that Rousey return is only motivated by money, while on the other hand she is fighting to become the best of the best.
“I think that the part that bothers me most about Ronda is at one point she was a real athlete,” Harrison said. “She was training for the Olympics. She’s an Olympic bronze medalist. She became a UFC champion. She was really trying to chase greatness. I will never take away the fact that Ronda is probably the most important female fighter. If it weren’t for her, for sure I wouldn’t be where I’m at. I wouldn’t have a job. But this fight is not the greatest fight of all time.
“It’s between someone who hasn’t fought in 10 years and is coming off two knockout losses and another woman, again another legend, another pioneer, but hasn’t fought in 17 years and is in her 40s. Don’t call it the greatest fight of all time. I’m chasing greatness. You’re chasing money. We’re different.”
Despite the bad blood between them, as things stand Rousey has claimed that she intends to head back into retirement again after her fight with Carano.
