Kayla Harrison emerges as overwhelming favorite to beat former champ Holly Holm at UFC 300

Kayla Harrison has opened as the heavy betting favorite ahead of her promotional debut bout against Holly Holm at UFC 300.

Dana White announced the signing of Harrison last weekend, as well as confirming that she would be making her first octagon appearance against Holm on the highly anticipated pay-per-view on Apr. 13.

The 33-year-old will also be making her bantamweight debut, having previously fought in the PFL women's lightweight division and made one outing at 150 pounds.

Kayla Harrison was widely considered as one of the best female MMA fighters outside of the UFC, and her signing is being classed a real coup by the promotion.

Harrison won back-to-back gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics in judo before opting to step into MMA. She later made her debut in the PFL in 2018 and went on to win 16 of her 17 fights in the promotion, including 12 finishes.

She will now face arguably the biggest test of her career on her debut against 'The Preacher's Daughter'. Holm is both a former UFC women's bantamweight champion and former three-division multi-time boxing titleholder.

Despite being matched up against a veteran and former champ, Harrison's dominance in the PFL has been reflected so far in the betting odds. Courtesy of DraftKings, betting has opened with Harrison as a -310 favorite, compared to Holm's +250 underdog status.

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Megan Anderson weighs in on Kayla Harrison vs. Holly Holm

Megan Anderson, a former opponent of Holly Holm, has weighed in on her matchup against Kayla Harrison.

The pair will fight at bantamweight, marking the first time Harrison will have fought at that weight. There is a sense of unrest among fans about the weight class, too, as Harrison has previously discussed her struggles cutting down to 145 pounds.

Speaking about the fighter on her YouTube channel, Anderson questioned whether or not the weight cut will affect Harrison's ability in the octagon. She said:

"With those weight cuts too, will her strength be there? She likes to use her strength, she likes to use her physical prowess in her fights, but will that still be there dropping to a weight class that she's never [to] dropped before?"

She added:

"If she's cutting a significant amount of weight, that increases the risk of not being able to rehydrate correctly, which then increases the risks of knockouts... Holly Holm, out of every single opponent in my entire career, is physically the strongest opponent I've ever faced. She's a f**king specimen."

Catch Anderson's comments regarding Kayla Harrison here (1:20):