“I was puffy, I was sad, I was depressed” – Kayla Harrison candidly discusses her mental challenges in the wake of first career defeat

PFL star and Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison's last MMA outing over a year ago ended in her first professional defeat at the hands of Larissa Pacheco.

Harrison fell to a unanimous decision loss in November 2022 in the PFL women's lightweight tournament final, losing out on a third championship under the promotion's banner.

In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Kayla Harrison detailed her experience dealing with a rare loss and revealed her condition during the time:

“I was puffy, I was sad, I was depressed. Yeah, of course. I mean, look, I’m a type A, driven, obsessive psycho and I talk a big game and I want everything that I say I want. So yeah, dealing with a loss is not a walk in the park for me. I know it probably sounds trivial to maybe a lot of people but this is what I do. It’s really important to me, I put a lot of effort and energy and time and a lot of people around me put a lot of energy and time into that so, it was humbling and it was hard. I don’t want to call it rock bottom but nothing, nothing stings quite like the pain of failure... You just wanna crawl out of your skin.”

Kayla Harrison also mentioned that she seemed to slip back into the void quite often but realizes that it was for the better:

“I mean, I would get out of it and then get back in it, I would get out of it then get back in it. You know, I would be wicked depressed and emotional and then my kids would say something funny or do something funny or bring me back to the present moment and I would realize, like, 'Oh yeah, that sh*t doesn’t matter.' And then I would think I had a fight, then I wouldn’t have a fight. It was up and down but really, it was all for my good.”

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Kayla Harrison declares that she does not fear anyone in mixed martial arts

Kayla Harrison has enjoyed a stellar professional mixed martial arts career so far, losing only once and racking up 15 impressive wins.

In her first fight since the opening loss of her career, she goes up against former UFC fighter Aspen Ladd. Ahead of it, Harrison has insisted that she does not fear Ladd or anybody else's resume or the promotion they are from.

She told Helwani:

"Nobody in the UFC, nobody in Bellator, and nobody in PFL scares me and I’m willing to put that on the line. I bet on myself."

Check out Kayla Harrison's full comments below on YouTube [1:02:30]: