It’s hard to blame the 28-year-old fighter who has already reached incredible heights in her combat sports career. As a judoka, Harrison became the first American to take home gold at the Olympic games when she conquered London in 2012; she made history a second time, defending her Olympic title at the Rio games in 2016.
Predictably, Harrison’s dominance led to curiosity over whether she would follow in the footsteps of former training partner Ronda Rousey and seek stardom in the MMA world. Harrison deflected the questions for as long as she could before eventually signing on as a commentator for the World Series of Fighting promotion in 2016 with the understanding that she would likely step into the cage herself.