Incoming UFC bantamweight, former two-time PFL champ, and two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison has spoken out about her first experience as part of a UFC Fan Q&A — and as anyone who was already watching should already be aware, it wasn’t a good look for the MMA fanbase.
The UFC 300 Q&A took place at the Kaseya Center in Miami last Friday, ahead of the UFC 299 official weigh-ins. Cageside Press was on hand for the event, which saw a limited number of questions fielded by media members prior to fans interacting directly with Alex Pereira, Kayla Harrison, and Arman Tsarukyan.
Pereira and Harrison actually fared a little better than Tsarukyan, at least initially, who was told bluntly he would lose against Charles Oliveira next month, told off, and given the finger by so-called UFC “fans” who likely wouldn’t be willing to flip a trained fighter the bird were it not in a controlled environment. Tsarukyan handled the situation well enough, but when one fan spoke to Tsarukyan in Russian, things went off the rails.
With no translator present, no one was quite sure what the fan had asked. When asked directly, Tsarukyan dismissed it as a “stupid question.” Turns out, in cruder terms, the fan had asked how many times the Armenian-Russian lightweight would sleep with Harrison — who has publicly spoken about sending her former Judo coach to jail after he engaged in a sexual relationship with her while she was underage.
Combined with the stream of abuse Arman Tsarukyan endured at the Q&A, it was simply embarrassing for the sport. Now, Harrison has opened up, having learned of the translation to the question after being tagged on social media.
“It’s disheartening. I think it’s disrespectful. I’m a two-time Olympic champion, I’m a world champion, I’m a mother, I’m an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse, I wrote a book, I have a foundation,” Harrison, who debuts against Holly Holm next month, said during an appearance on The MMA Hour this week. “So in that sense it was disrespectful that someone would even ask that question, but more than that, you would never hear a female get asked ‘how many times would you have sex with Alex Pereira?'”
“We don’t sexualize men like that. So it was disheartening, and at first I was super-embarrassed and like shocked by it, but then I was like ‘you know what, f*ck it.’ I’m just going to keep being me and I’m going to say something about it when the time is right, because I feel like that’s wrong. And I want to change the landscape of the sport not just for me but for future female fighters.”
And, as Harrison then pointed out, “it was on International Women’s Day to boot.”
Kayla Harrison and Arman Tsarukyan happen to be teammates at American Top Team, but despite Tsarukyan actually answering the fan’s question by saying “a couple,” the pair appear to be on good terms.
“Arman and I spoke about it. Arman and I are okay,” said Harrison. “We spoke about it, we’re good. There’s no issue with Arman. This is my point, that is wild, that that even happened.” And with all the abuse sent Tsarukayn’s way, “that was very disrespectful to him as well,” Harrison added.
