USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, June 10: Kayla Harrison rockets to P4P No. 1
With an utterly dominant dismantling of Julianna Peña, Kayla Harrison took home more than just a piece of hardware.
Now Harrison (19-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) tops our women's MMA pound-for-pound list after her submission of Peña (13-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC) in the second round to win the 135-pound strap in the UFC 316 co-main event. Harrison was a two-time lightweight $1 million champion in the PFL and won two Olympic gold medals in judo. Now she has a title from MMA's biggest promotion – and 20 pounds lower than the more comfortable natural weight she started her career at.
In the UFC 316 headliner, Merab Dvalishvili (20-4 MMA, 13-2 UFC) put on a dominant display, as well, when he submitted ex-champ Sean O'Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) in the third round of their rematch. Dvalishvili already was king of the hill at men's bantamweight – but did O'Malley drop with the loss?
Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.\
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Sparks veteran Dearica Hamby recognized how rehab was grinding down the rookie. One afternoon, she invited Brink to her home, where the dining table was set with scissors, glue sticks, stacks of magazines and knickknacks. 'I've always been taught growing up that your mind is your biggest power,' Brink said. 'So I've always been open to stuff like that. I heavily believe in manifesting what you want and powering a positive mindset.' Hamby had been building vision boards for years and believed Brink could use the same practice — both as a pastime and as a mechanism to combat the doubts that surfaced during her lengthy and often lonely rehab. 'If she can visualize it, she can train her mind the opposite of her negative thoughts and feelings,' Hamby said. 'When you see it, you can believe it. Your brain is constantly feeding itself. And if you have something in the back — those doubts — you need something to counter that.' The board dearest to Brink wasn't crowded with stats or accolades. 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Roberts praised her patient attitude as 'great,' a skill Brink sharpened by the ritual of opening her closet and trusting the journey. Kim Hollingdale, the Sparks' psychotherapist, worked closely with Brink during her recovery. While bound by confidentiality, she spoke to how manifestation tools can anchor an athlete through the mental strain of long recovery. 'Being able to stay in touch with where we're ultimately trying to get to can help on those days when it's feeling crappy,' Hollingdale said. 'Visualization helps us be like, 'OK, look, we're still heading to that vision. This is part of the journey.' It gives purpose, direction and a little hope when you're in the mud of recovery.' That sense of purpose, she added, is about giving the brain something familiar to return to when progress stalls — a way for the mind to rehearse what the legs can't. For Brink, that meant keeping her game alive in pictures she ran through her head. 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'For her, it's more of a mental thing than a physical thing. She took her time, not listening to people tell her she should have been back sooner.' When Brink shuts the closet door and heads to Arena for game day, she's already spent the morning tracing the steps of the night. On the next blank corner of her canvas? 'Being an All-Star and going to the Olympics,' she said.
