Long lay-offs are a momentum killer for many fighters who go through tough injuries during their rise in MMA. Add a pandemic to that and you’ve got a recipe for a full-stop to someone’s career, especially one coming from Australia like Janay Harding.
For Bellator featherweight Harding, it was a part of the journey to get back in the cage. Harding sat down with Cageside Press to talk about her journey from the surgery room to Bellator 279, where she faces Dayana Silva on April 23rd in Honolulu, HI.
Harding suffered a detached retina during training in San Diego, CA. Once she returned to Australia, doctors told her she needed emergency detached retina surgery.
“I originally took a little bit of time off because of the Australian lockdown. I was living in Sidney and we just had this crazy restriction that went on for 3 months. So then I did come over to San Diego to outsource my training. That was super positive for me, but at the same time I didn’t really want to take a fight because I wasn’t super comfortable with all these people yet. It ended up working out fantastically,” Harding said.
“When I went back to Australia for Christmas I ended finding out that I had a detached retina and then having to get this emergency surgery. That all happened a couple days before Christmas. It was pretty wild a bit of a roller coaster. That was just under four months ago now so we’re back. I’m two weeks out from a fight and everything sort of changed. I wear glasses, my vision in that left eye is super impaired, but we just persevere and we get through it. I’ve sacrificed so much for this sport and I’ve sacrificed so much for this career. I’m just sort of like it’s just another thing and now I can’t fail. Now it’s just a little bit more motivation. I’ve now given my eyesight to this sport. So I have to be a world champion, I can’t stop.”
For Harding quitting was not an option but in a sport where eyesight is so important it was concern whether athletic commissions would even allow her to fight.
“I was never like ‘I’m going to quit’ but I was like ‘They better let me fight.’ That was the main thing. I didn’t know many people that had gone through a detached retina. Obviously one of the most famous is Michael Bisping. After having gone through the experience myself I looked into other people’s experiences and obviously found out theres somewhat of a way around it and I can still kind of persevere. So that was all sort of like learning curves. There was a lot of doubt and I guess unknown with what’s going to happen next, but luckily here we are so far I’ve been cleared,” Harding said.
Harding takes on Dayana Silva for her first fight back and with Silva being a well-rounded fighter who took Julia Budd to a split-decision at Bellator 257 Harding knows she’ll have to bring her best.
Taking into account the journey Harding has been on for the past year with lockdowns at home, and then a scary surgery on her left eye, her return to the cage will make this fight more meaningful.
“I think this one will be a bit of an emotional one. It’s been a bit of a journey in the last year specially. Coming off the loss, going to lock down, getting the surgery these are all things that I’ve sort of had to face to come back here. I just know getting a win of Dayana will again solidify that I deserve to be here. She just fought two extremely hard opponents and I do feel that she is a high threat in the division even though she’s ranked a little bit lower,” said Harding.
“For me it would just be able to show where I am. I’m leaps and bounds above that even and I’m trying to prove that each time by being a little bit more comfortable in the cage and a little bit more mature. Now I’m coming into myself, I’ve face all the adversity I feel like I need to face and now it’s just a straight run to the title.”
Janay Harding takes on Dayana Silva at Bellator 279 on April 23rd in Honolulu, HI.
For more from Janay Harding please watch the interview above and visit CagesidePress.com for more from Bellator 279.
