Kayla Harrison was born on July 2, 1990, in Middletown, Ohio, and began judo at age six. Her early competitive career was shadowed by a period of sexual abuse by a former coach, an experience she has since spoken about extensively as part of her advocacy for other survivors. As her talent developed she moved away from her original club to train under the Pedro family — 1996 and 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Jimmy Pedro and his father, Jim Pedro Sr. — relocating to the Boston area to train at their judo club as she rose through the junior and senior ranks. In 2019 her stepfather died suddenly and her mother suffered a stroke; the following year Harrison took on full custody of her niece, Kyla, and nephew, Emery, raising them from her training base near American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

Harrison won her first world title at the 2010 World Judo Championships in Tokyo, then became the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in judo, taking the 78kg division at the 2012 London Games. She added a Grand Slam Tokyo title in 2015 and the IJF Masters title in 2016, entering the Rio Olympics as the top-ranked judoka in her weight class. At the 2016 Rio Games she defended her Olympic title, becoming the first American judoka — male or female — to win two Olympic gold medals. USA Judo recognizes her as the most successful judoka in American history.

In 2018 Harrison transitioned to professional mixed martial arts, signing with the Professional Fighters League and its regular-season-into-playoffs tournament structure. She won the PFL women’s lightweight championship and its $1 million winner-take-all prize in 2019, defeating Larissa Pacheco, then repeated the feat in 2021 with a second-round armbar submission of Taylor Guardado. After signing a new PFL deal in 2022, she suffered her only professional MMA loss to date, a unanimous-decision defeat to Pacheco in the November 2022 PFL lightweight final, before rebounding to beat former Bellator champion Julia Budd in a non-title bout at the 2023 PFL World Championship. Harrison signed with the UFC as a free agent in January 2024 and made an immediate statement in her promotional debut at UFC 300, submitting former bantamweight champion Holly Holm via second-round rear-naked choke. She followed with a unanimous-decision win over Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307 in October 2024, then defeated Julianna Pena via second-round submission at UFC 316 in June 2025 to become UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion. She was scheduled to make her first title defense against Amanda Nunes at UFC 324 in January 2026 but withdrew after being diagnosed with a herniated disc in her neck and undergoing surgery; as of August 2026 her team says she is targeting a late-2026 return against Nunes.

Harrison’s disclosed earnings have grown substantially since her 2018 MMA debut. Multiple outlets tracking her career estimate she has earned more than $2.3 million in documented fight purses across her PFL and UFC careers combined, not counting endorsement and sponsorship income. Her two PFL tournament victories alone paid $1 million each in 2019 and 2021, and Nevada State Athletic Commission disclosures show she earned an $882,000 purse plus a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus — $932,000 total — for headlining UFC 316 in June 2025, her largest single disclosed payday to date. Her UFC 300 and UFC 307 purses were not publicly disclosed by the promotion, which is standard practice outside of state athletic commission filings, though MMA outlets reported them to be in the six-figure range given her status as a marquee promotional signing.

Harrison’s PFL deals evolved as her value rose. She re-signed with PFL on a multi-year extension early in her tenure, then in 2022 leveraged a rival offer from Bellator MMA, reportedly in the range of seven figures per fight, into a matched deal from PFL covering the 2022 season plus two additional fights, with her manager Ali Abdelaziz describing the terms as making her the highest-paid female fighter in MMA history — a claim that has not been independently verified against other fighters’ confidential contracts. PFL’s format is structurally different from a standard fight promotion: fighters compete through a regular season, then a single-elimination playoff bracket, with the tournament champion in each weight class collecting a $1 million winner-take-all prize on top of individual fight purses, rather than the UFC’s per-fight purse-and-bonus model. Harrison signed with the UFC as an unrestricted free agent in January 2024; the UFC does not publicly disclose base contract terms, though her win over Holly Holm in her promotional debut and subsequent title run have been widely credited with substantially increasing her per-fight value heading into a prospective new deal tied to her bantamweight title reign.

Harrison has built a sponsorship portfolio spanning both her judo and MMA careers. She has been the face of a signature “Fuji by Kayla” apparel line with grappling and combat-sports brand Fuji Sports (distributed by Hatashita Sports) since 2016, and MMA and lifestyle press have reported additional sponsorship relationships tied to her UFC champion profile, including with energy-drink brand Celsius and combat-sports gear and supplement brands. As with most individual fighter sponsorships, exact deal values have not been publicly disclosed.

Harrison’s primary outside venture is her long-running Fuji by Kayla apparel partnership rather than an equity business she owns outright. In 2018 she published a memoir, Fighting Back, with Ballantine Books, detailing her judo career and her recovery from abuse, which generated a reported book advance and ongoing royalty income, though specific figures were not disclosed. She also founded the Fearless Foundation in 2013, a nonprofit supporting survivors of child sexual abuse through education and health and wellness programming; as a charitable organization it is not a source of personal income, but it has become a significant part of her public profile and the platform behind her endorsement value.

Harrison trains and lives near American Top Team’s Coconut Creek, Florida facility, and lifestyle coverage has described a property there that includes space for pet emus alongside her family life with her niece and nephew. No public land-registry records or purchase-price figures for her Florida property have been reported by credible outlets, so this profile does not repeat unverified dollar estimates for it. Beyond her residence, Harrison has not been publicly linked to significant collected assets such as cars, art, or investment real estate in the way some longer-tenured, higher-earning athletes have.