How bleeding for the first time put Kayla Harrison in 'mom mode' at UFC 307

Prior to UFC 307, Kayla Harrison hadn’t bled in 18 career fights. Then she did in her 19th after Ketlen Vieira landed two hard elbows to her face in the second round of their bantamweight bout this past Saturday, and what immediately crossed Harrison’s mind was her kids sitting cageside.

“I mean, honestly, my kids can’t come to my fights anymore. Because my first thought was, ‘Oh, my kids are seeing this,'” Harrison said Monday in an interview with TMZ. “That is not a thought I need to be having when I’m inside of a cage. I don’t need to be thinking of my kids watching me bleed. I went into mom mode. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I hope they know I’m OK.'”

Harrison, 34, became a single mom through adoption in 2019 when unfortunate family circumstances served as a calling to take in her niece and nephew. The thought of how her kids would react lasted for only a moment. Once it left her mind, Harrison went back to being all business for Round 3.

“After I got that thought out of the way, it was just kind of like – in between the second and third round, I was bleeding, and I kind of hawked a loogie, and I spit,” Harrison said. “There was blood on it, and I just bit down on my mouthguard like, ‘All right, let’s f*cking go.'”

Harrison went on to win the third round on all three judges’ scorecards and secured a unanimous decision win in her second UFC appearance. The former two-time PFL champion expects to fight for the UFC title next against newly crowned champion Julianna Peña.