Stand and Deliver: Olympic-Level Pressure

In some ways, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. But while it is true that every fight matters, some feel as if they matter more, for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the elevated stakes are easy to define. Picture the fighter on a losing streak who knows he or she is likely fighting for their job; or conversely, any matchup on Dana White's Contender Series, where two hopefuls know that the brass ring is within their reach if they can win impressively. In other cases, a fight feels especially important for reasons that are harder to quantify, but no less real. Whether it’s the symbolic heft of being a pioneer in MMA from one’s country, or the simple added spice of two fighters who really hate each other’s guts, that fight means just a little more.

This week, several of the biggest promotions in the world are in action, and unlike last week, the events are sensibly spaced out. Leading the parade is Professional Fighters League, whose top star, Kayla Harrison, will enter the playoffs at PFL 8 on Thursday, looking to repeat as lightweight champion. On Friday, Bellator 265 brings a clash of 40-something heavyweight stalwarts in Cheick Kongo and Sergei Kharitonov, atop a card with a couple of Bellator MMA’s most overlooked prospects. Hitting cleanup on Saturday night is UFC on ESPN 29, headlined by a middleweight scrap that has the potential to keep at least one of its participants within spitting distance of a title shot.

Such a three-day feast of fisticuffs, of course, is rich with examples of men and women with just a little bit more to prove, to gain or to lose, than the simple numbers would indicate. Here are three fighters under extra pressure to stand and deliver at PFL 8, Bellator 265 and UFC Vegas 34.

Keep It Perfect, Kayla Harrison

As Harrison faces Genah Fabian in her lightweight semifinal on Thursday, there’s no reason to believe a Holly Holm-Ronda Rousey shocker is on the horizon. Yes, Fabian is a decorated striker with impressive poise and reach, while Harrison is a world-class judoka who has steamrolled everything in her way thus far in MMA. Harrison has shown no sign of falling unnecessarily in love with her kickboxing, doesn’t overextend herself in an effort to be exciting and has made very, very few mistakes in the cage. She will probably be a 20-to-1 favorite on fight night and for good reason.

So why is she under any pressure at all? Put simply, everything Harrison does between now and the end of 2021 affects her future prospects and earning potential in drastic ways. Harrison’s mystique is centered on dominance. Rousey’s star power would have survived the Holm loss just fine because Rousey was a transcendent figure, a hero to non-combat sports fans who often didn’t even know what her record was, let alone care whether he had zero, one or two losses.

Harrison may not have that luxury. She will be a colossal favorite over anyone PFL can get to fight her at 155 pounds, and even 145 is a very bare pantry. After this season, she may test the free agent market. Perhaps she will press PFL to open a featherweight division for her. However, her bargaining power, with the UFC and Bellator — the only two promotions with blockbuster featherweight matchups available — hinges on her winning the PFL title, and it would help if she did so with style. A fight with Amanda Nunes, Cristiane Justino or Julia Budd loses a certain appeal if we see Harrison struggle with Fabian this week.

Punish Them for This, Logan Storley

If you told me that Storley is the second best welterweight in Bellator right now, I don’t know if I would agree, but I wouldn’t laugh. “Storm” won his first 10 career fights, including his first six in Bellator, arguably without losing so much as a minute of any round. At that point he ran into 24-0 Yaroslav Amosov and while Storley lost a straightforward 29-28 decision to the future champ, he had Amosov in some actual trouble late, and in any case gave him a tougher fight than anyone else has, including Douglas Lima.

For a bounce-back fight after the Amosov loss, Bellator could have matched the 28-year-old South Dakotan with any number of intriguing foes. The nice thing about Storley not participating in the 2018 welterweight grand prix is that he hasn’t yet fought any of his fellow contenders; names like Neiman Gracie, Ed Ruth and Jason Jackson were out there, just to name three. Andrey Koreshkov fought just last week.

Instead, the promotion has chosen to match its No. 5 welterweight contender with…Dante Schiro, who is 8-2 overall and will be making his Bellator debut this Friday. Unsurprisingly, Storley is out there right now as anywhere from a 15-to-1 favorite, all the way up to a preposterous 25-to-1. As a chance to fight in front of friends and family in Sioux Falls, it’s certainly better than nothing. However, Storley has always come across as thoroughly unimpressed with the trappings of fame, and driven by the need to test himself through competition. If he doesn’t like this matchup, if he’s wondering what else he needs to do in order to get another Top 10 opponent, it begins with showing his bosses what a very, very silly thing they did in making this fight.

The Clock Is Not Your Friend, Mark O. Madsen

The good news for Madsen is that he is a perfect 10-0 in professional MMA, and for the most part has made it look sort of easy. His transition from Cage Warriors Fighting Championship to the UFC was as seamless as his overdue drop from welterweight to lightweight. His cachet as a three-time Olympic wrestler gives an easy marketing hook; so long as he keeps winning, he seems like the kind of athlete around which the UFC could build European fight night cards once those are a thing again.

That’s the good news. The other news is that the cueballed Dane turns 37 next month, an inopportune time for him to begin fighting once a year as he has recently. Madsen came to MMA in earnest in 2018, at age 33, a Randy Couture-esque late starter, but made up for lost time by fighting seven times in 18 months. If Madsen has designs on making actual moves in the absurdly deep UFC 155-pound division, he absolutely needs to pick up the pace. It starts on Saturday with Clay Guida, a veteran of nearly 60 fights who is somehow not even two years older than Madsen, but who seems stylistically cut out for “The Olympian” to handle. The game plan: Get the win, don’t get banged up too badly, and make it back to the Octagon for one more fight in 2021.