UFC Fans Come to Kayla Harrison’s Defense After Old Footage Shows Ronda Rousey Dominating Her

Allan Binoy | 12/06/2025
Kayla Harrison (L), Ronda Rousey (R)

As the new bantamweight champion, Kayla Harrison now finds herself under the microscope of UFC fans. Especially now that she plans on welcoming the GOAT, Amanda Nunes, for a title fight.

Following Harrison’s championship victory at UFC 316, the UFC brought ‘The Lioness’ into the octagon to tease a potential fight. Both fighters faced off. The only thing that remains is for the UFC to announce a date and time for the mega fight.

Despite it still being early days, it would seem a section of the fanbase is already writing Harrison off, especially in light of Nunes’ resume.

And now old footage from the bantamweight champion’s wrestling days has emerged, where an 18-year-old Ronda Rousey was seen up against the then 15-year-old Harrison. While seeing Harrison being controlled soundly by Rousey has some fans shocked, some others are stepping up to defend the Olympic gold medalist.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by HOME OF FIGHT (@homeoffight)


“3-year age gap in the teens is a huge advantage,” one fan said, noting their age difference.

A second fan asked the community to look at their records in the Olympics and added, “Rousey do not win gold medal,” as a third reiterated, “I only see 1 gold medalist…”

 

Most Instagram users were convinced that an older Harrison would have changed the outcome of the fight, “15 and 18 is a big difference. I bet 18yo Kayla beat 18yo Rhonda”.

However, even as Harrison prepares for the biggest MMA fight of her career against Nunes, this UFC legend believes it’s time for her to hang up the gloves for good.

Harrison should retire, says UFC Legend

Demetrious Johnson thinks this is the perfect opportunity for Harrison to retire, claiming that the Nunes fight would be a blot on her otherwise spectacular career.

Harrison is a 2-time Olympic gold medallist, a two-time PFL champion, and now a UFC champion. But to ‘Might Mouse’, fighting Nunes is a bad matchup for her and is not something she should consider.

“Kayla Harrison is calling out Amanda Nunes. I think that’s a very, very bad idea.. If I was Kayla Harrison, I would retire from the sport, don’t fight Amanda Nunes,” Johnson asserted.

 

Harrison responded to the statement by claiming that while she was a fan of the ‘Mighty Mouse’, her belief in herself was unshakeable.

Post Edited By: Smrutisnat Jena
Kayla Harrison ronda rousey

About the author

Avatar photo

Allan Binoy

Allan Binoy is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush. Taken to the sport in 2015, thanks to a certain Conor McGregor, Allan has himself dabbled in the martial arts. And having graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a degree in English Literature, he has learnt to use his love for language to have a voice in the MMA community. Allan has been writing about the gladiatorial stories for more than three years now and has pursued excellence at a number of reputable media organizations, covering every UFC PPV in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the southpaw is also a semi-professional soccer player for Diego Juniors FC in Pune, playing in the Pune Super Division League.

Don’t miss these