Kayla Harrison’s physique has been a hot topic since she joined the UFC in January 2024. And ever since, the detractors have come calling out of the woodwork.
Case in point, this Reddit user posted a picture of Kayla alongside a shredded Michael Chandler and popped the question, “Who got more secret juice from Paulo?”
Notably, the two-time Olympic gold medallist used to compete at 172 lbs in judo. Upon her transition to MMA, she is known to have competed in three different weight classes- lightweight (155 lbs), featherweight (145 lbs), and bantamweight (135 lbs)- which is the heaviest division for women in the UFC.
— THE UFCGUY (@the_ufcguy) April 13, 2025
Needless to say, whenever anyone goes down from 170 lbs to 135 lbs, they look shredded to the gills. Unfortunately, some fans have cast asperstions over her being a clean athlete.
“Good thing they got rid of USADA around the time they signed Kyle Harrison,” a Reddit user quipped about the convenient timing of Harrison singing with the UFC and the organization parting ways with USADA.
— THE UFCGUY (@the_ufcguy) April 13, 2025
However, some fans took a good look at the pictures and concluded that, “Kayla’s physique is way more unrealistic, and this pic of Chandler is photoshopped,” one fan claimed.” “They are both photoshopped im pretty sure”, asserted another.
This fan saw a very different side to the story, “Honestly dgaf until she actually pops hot in the UFC. She can finally get rid of Julianna Pena for us, if the physique matches the hype that is.”
Notably, Harrison has been in the testing pool of USADA since she was 13 years old and has never once tested positive for PEDs. She truly is a one-of-a-kind athlete.
Unfortunately, the problem of photoshopped physiques or misogyny is not exactly new to the MMA community.
Earlier last year, a UFC viewer posted a photo of Harrison driving a convertible in a sleeveless dress and compared her to former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley.
“Kayla Harrison has bigger arms than most of the men’s 135 division”, he said, prompting a response from UFC middleweight Paulo Costa, claiming even his limbs were smaller than the Olympian. Costa has since deleted the tweet.
Kayla Harrison has bigger arms than most of the mens 135 division pic.twitter.com/qdkZAIzrBG
— Elonov (@ElonovMMA) October 4, 2024
Julianna Pena calls Harrison a ‘weight bully’
Following her last fight against Ketlen Viera at UFC 307 last year, Kayla had revealed her struggles while cutting down to a measly 135 lbs.
Taking to TMZ, after the decision win, Kayla had revealed that she needed to take a bit of time off due to the painful process of weight cut and the health issues it had induced for her. She was reportedly been admitted to a hospital a week prior to the fight.
“I’m just not built to weigh 135lb. Anytime I get under the 150s, it’s not pleasant”, she had later noted in agony.
And just yesterday, during the first UFC 316 press conference, bantamweight champion Julianna Pena used the interview to mock her for being a weight bully.
“I wanted to know, are you okay, honestly? Because I know that you have to like piss blood, spit blood in order to weight drain yourself, you weight bully, to make this division in the first place”, she chided.
Harrison and Pena are set to fight for the bantamweight title at UFC 316 on June 8.
