Kayla Harrison Opens Up On UFC 316 Weight Reduce, Submitting Pena, Struggle W/ Nunes!

Kayla Harrison‘s sittin’ atop the MMA world … and the newly topped girls’s bantamweight champ is speaking all issues UFC 316 and past — from her insane weight reduce to her subsequent battle vs. Amanda Nunes!

34-year-old Harrison joined Babcock on the “TMZ Sports activities” TV present (airs nightly on FS1) … simply days after she dominated now-former champ Julianna Pena within the co-main occasion, successful by second-round submission.

We requested her — with a few days to digest the big accomplishment — how she was feelin’?

And whereas chores aren’t anybody’s concept of a good time, her little ones are most necessary to Kayla.

“I am so blessed to have [Emery and Kyla]. I feel typically about they’re the true prize. If I had been coming house with a UFC belt to an empty home, the considered that makes me need to cry. Like I am unable to even think about my life with out them. And so, yeah, they’re the prize.”

As for the precise battle, Harrison made mild work of Pena … which is tremendous spectacular contemplating how harmful Julianna is inside an Octagon.

“I understand how robust Juliana is. This woman beat Amanda. I anticipated 25 arduous minutes. I actually mentally ready for that,” Harrison instructed us, saying her early success within the battle “felt too good to be true.”

“Even within the first spherical, I felt like I had alternatives to unleash, however I form of instructed myself, ‘hear, 25 minutes is a very long time. Let’s tempo ourselves. Let’s be sensible.’ What if she comes out weapons blazing and what if there’s one thing lacking right here?” Kayla mentioned of her mindset Saturday night time.

Then, within the second spherical, the champ says she “form of misplaced monitor of time” earlier than she heard the sign indicating 10 seconds remained … “and I used to be like, ‘f*** it.'”

And, similar to that … Kimura, faucet, and new!

The toughest a part of the entire battle week was the load reduce … the primary time Kayla needed to get right down to 135 (she beforehand needed to clear 136, and that pound makes a helluva distinction).

“I feel it is simply belief and give up and also you gotta have religion as a result of it would make individuals uncomfortable, however there’s simply no approach in hell that I can do it on my own. I’m not mentally robust sufficient. My thoughts wished to stop. And my physique was fairly shut. That was all God. That was all God.”

Now, Harrison (after every week of “stress-free with the youngsters”), will shift her focus to Nunes … in what’s going to finally be the largest battle within the historical past of girls’s MMA.

“I really cannot wait to be again within the gymnasium. I’ve no accidents. I really feel good. I feel Amanda has to get again into the drug testing pool. After which I would like her to be ‘The Lioness.’ I need to face one of the best Amanda Nunes ever. So, the balls in her court docket!”