Kayla Harrison likes her chances against Khabib Nurmagomedov in a Judo match

When it comes to Judo players in MMA, there is no one better right now than PFL lightweight, Kayla Harrison.

The undefeated 3-0 American Top Team product is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and her dominance has so far carried over to the MMA world with great effect.

Having made her debut just this past year, Harrison has won all three of her professional bouts to this point by way of finish (two TKOs, one submission). For her next venture, she’ll be participating in the PFL’s million dollar eight-woman lightweight tournament.

The tournament kicks off this Thursday night at PFL 12 as Harrison will be headlining opposite UFC veteran, Larissa Pacheco.

When it comes to popular and successful Judokas in MMA, Harrison isn’t the first of her kind as many have linked her and former UFC and Strikeforce bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey to one another. Which is certainly fair… the two even trained together at one point.

As everyone knows, Rousey was known for her incredible confidence and self-belief. She was so confident in her abilities that she went on record to say that she believed under the right circumstances that she could hang with the men in a fight (the then UFC heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez to be specific). Well, that just makes for another similarity between her and Harrison.

Speaking toTMZ recently, Harrison shared her thoughts on what would happen if she was ever to get on the mat with a fellow undefeated and dominant grappler in UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“Am I gonna beat Khabib? I mean I think I would beat him in a Judo match. For sure, 100 percent. I would beat Khabib.” she said.

Nurmagomedov is notoriously managed by Ali Abdelaziz, who also happens to manage several of the sports biggest names… that includes Harrison. TMZ also spoke with him and he shared his thoughts saying he’d be down to set something up between his fighters if the money is right.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/7/2019