Before choosing a professional MMA competition, Kayla Harrison had a brilliant record of an amateur boxer. She was the first US Judoka who won the Olympic gold medal, and even made this miracle twice in a row. Harrison won the 2012 London and Rio 2016 Olympics in the weight of 78kg.
At the time of Harrison successfully defended the Olympic gold medal, this boxer surprised his life almost nothing significantly changed. In the US, Judo is not a popular sport like athletics or swimming. The Olympic gold medal can help Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt are known to the world, but Harrison is not so lucky.
Essentially Sports estimates that Kayla Harrison's fortune before joining UFC is about 1-1.5 million USD. This is a modest figure for a female boxer who has twice the Olympic championship, then joined the PFL for 7 years. However, it is also the reality of the athletes playing in “niches”, which are not popular with the mass audience.
Harrison only really changed his life from the time of farewell to PFL and joined UFC in early 2024. With the previous impressive achievement table, she headed to the belt match after two consecutive victories. With 3 matches at UFC for 18 months, Harrison received about 550,000 USD, equivalent to 1/3 of the earnings of 15 years earlier.
Harrison personally shows himself absolutely worthy of UFC remuneration. She was expected to become a new Queen of UFC, and this boxer did. In the match against Julianna Pena, Harrison overwhelmed, causing the opponent to make a mistake and deducted points in the first half, then ended the competition early in the second half with a lock.