Preview: PFL 6 ‘Harrison vs. Young’

It was not the opponent she expected, but Kayla Harrison will nonetheless attempt to continue her march toward a third consecutive Professional Fighters League championship at PFL 6. Originally paired with former Bellator MMA featherweight titleholder Julia Budd, Harrison will instead lock horns with Kaitlin Young in the main event on Friday at Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. Young still serves as a veteran opponent for Harrison, though one with a less impressive resume. The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and will also see Rory MacDonald square off against Sadibou Sy in a welterweight co-headliner with playoff implications.

Now to the preview for PFL 6 “Harrison vs. Young”—the promotion’s final regular-season event of 2022:

Women’s Lightweights

Kayla Harrison (13-0, 12-0 PFL) vs. Kaitlin Young (12-12-1, 1-2 PFL)

Perhaps it’s a testament to the standard of excellence established during her Professional Fighters League tenure, but Harrison’s unanimous decision victory over Marina Mokhnatkina left a little something to be desired. The two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka was rarely threatened as she went the distance in victory for the first time since the 2019 PFL finals against Larissa Pacheco, but Mokhnatkina did a good job of neutralizing Harrison on the canvas by preventing openings for meaningful ground-and-pound and submission attempts. Harrison did well to defend against the leg locks and kneebars from the combat sambo specialist, but the hypercompetitive American Top Team product is often her own worst critic and will undoubtedly be looking to make a more emphatic statement in her second regular-season bout.

Harrison was originally scheduled to face Budd, who even coming off a loss would have been the most accomplished opponent the defending PFL champion has faced to date. Young, her replacement, is one of the pioneers of women’s MMA—she bested Miesha Tate under the HOOKnSHOOT banner in 2007—but her overall record is pedestrian after falling short against most of the top-level competition she has faced. Young is a conservative striker on the feet, as she is often content to look for openings to counter as she works 1-2 combinations on the outside. She has decent knees in the clinch and will throw head kicks when comfortable—she wobbled Mariana Morais with one in their PFL encounter—but she does not possess dangerous power. The former Invicta Fighting Championships matchmaker has decent takedown defense and scrambling ability, though she can be outmuscled by more physical foes.

It is hard to envision a path to victory for Young, who is the inferior athlete by a significant margin. Her veteran savvy will have her prepared for what Harrison has to offer, but that does not mean she will be able to stop it. Harrison excels at executing trips and throws from the clinch, maintaining positional control and using ground-and-pound to create openings for submissions. Her striking is a work in progress, but Harrison is adept at using it as a means to transition to grappling, and she is becoming increasingly confident with her kicks as time progresses. It is unlikely that Young will be able to keep the fight at her tempo and range against a motivated opponent. Expect Harrison to shake off a sluggish performance in her previous outing and get the finish here, either via submission or ground-and-pound.

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Harrison vs. Young
MacDonald vs. Sy
Cooper III vs. Cooper
Magomedkerimov vs. Zeferino
The Prelims