PFL Founder Donn Davis fires back at Dana White for comments about Kayla Harrison

FORT LAUDERDALE — Kayla Harrison will be a free agent after this Wednesday’s PFL 2021 Championship.

Appearing during the fight week’s media day, Harrison answered the usual round of questions – lastly focusing on comments from Dana White earlier in the day.

“If I was her, I’d stay right where she is and keep picking off the people over there,” White told TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter. “… I would stay there [in the PFL] and keep fighting the type of women she’s fighting there before I would come here and fight an Amanda Nunes. That’s for damn sure.”

Harrison, 31, has quickly amassed a record of 11-0 with all but one of those victories coming inside the PFL cage. Having already earned the million-dollar grand prize in 2019, Harrison could go out with a bang by defeating Taylor Guardado in the 2021 lightweight finals main event.

“Thanks for the advice, Uncle Dana, I appreciate you,” Harrison told media on Monday. “My job is going to focus on Oct. 27. I really don’t care what other people have to say about me or my career, my choices, or my options. I’m going to do what’s best for me, and that’s it.

“That’s what he does. That’s his job. I’m gonna talk about how I’m the greatest of all time, and he’s gonna talk about, ‘Well, calm down. No, you’re not.’ This is a game. This is a business. The difference is I really am gonna be the greatest of all time. He’s gonna see.”

Right as Harrison finished her sentence, PFL Founder Donn Davis entered the room to retort to White’s comments.

“Look, as the founder of the league, this is a fighter-first league,” Davis told BJPenn.com. “I’m an entrepreneur, I see them as entrepreneurs. How far can they (the fighters) go – it’s our job to help them. How do we encourage fighters, how do we promote fighters, how do we help fighters – that’s what the PFL is all about. So we want the fighters who want to bet on themselves. Because the PFL’s a meritocracy. Win and advance, lose and go home. It’s just like the NBA or the NFL, no B.S., no politics, no social media. What happens inside the cage determines the champion. The best fighter wins – that’s what sport is.”

The PFL 2021 Championship will see six new champions crowned with six million total dollars handed out along with the titles on Oct. 27.

“I respect UFC,” Davis added. “They blazed the way, but most of those fights are undercard fights. They don’t matter. It’s like the football preseason. I watch every minute of the NFL, I don’t watch any preseason. I’ll watch a title fight in the UFC, but the undercards don’t matter. With the PFL, I don’t care if it’s fight one or fight seven, you lose, you’re done for the year, it is March Madness meets MMA. So every fight matters, and how do you put the fighter first, we’re just doing something different here.”