The Professional Fighters League’s annual championship event went down on Wednesday night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and it was a huge night for women’s combat sports.

The card was topped by a 155-pound lightweight fight between unbeaten juggernaut Kayla Harrison (12-0) and a massive underdog in Taylor Guardado (3-2). The PFL lightweight title hung in the balance, as did the million-dollar prize the league awards the champion of each weight class at the end of each year.

As the pre-fight odds suggested, Harrison made it look easy, grounding and battering the outmatched Guardado en route to a second-round submission via armbar.

The fight marked the final obligation on Harrison’s latest PFL contract, making her arguably the hottest free agent in MMA today. She will undoubtedly field offers from other promotions like the UFC and Bellator, but could certainly be coaxed back to the PFL cage by the prospect of more million-dollar paydays.

“I have a lot to think about,” she said at the event’s post-fight press conference. “I have a family now. I still want to be the best in the world. I still want to continue to challenge myself. I feel like I can do that no matter where I go, but I got two mouths to feed and a family to take care of. We’ll see what happens.”

Congratulations Kayla Harrison!#PFLChampionship pic.twitter.com/cTORWGUllw

— PFL (@PFLMMA) October 28, 2021

While Harrison’s latest domination was deserving of its headlining spot, it certainly wasn’t the only big-ticket women’s bout on the bill. Earlier on the main card, three-division boxing world champion Claressa Shields (11-0 boxing, 1-1 MMA) competed in her second MMA bout, taking on Mexico’s Abigail Montes (3-0) in a 155-pound scrap.

Shields had her moments in the fight, landing plenty of her Olympic-caliber punches and even competing her lone takedown attempt of the fight. Unfortunately for the boxing champ, Montes proved a little too much, too soon. The Mexican prospect completed two of four takedown attempts and controlled her foe against the cage for the vast majority of the fight—enough, in sum, to sway two of three cage-side judges and earn a split decision victory. The win will more than likely earn her a spot in the 2022 PFL season.

Abigail gets the takedown midway through the 3rd round!#PFLChampionship LIVE NOW
🇺🇸 ESPN2 & ESPN
🌍 https://t.co/WfOt9XBfzk pic.twitter.com/ZkGCHR8WxI

— PFL (@PFLMMA) October 28, 2021

“I was always very confident in the work I put in and all that I did in my camp,” Montes said at the event’s post-fight press conference. “That’s why I looked very confident inside the cage.”

Shields, meanwhile, will have to return to the drawing board if she intends to continue her quest to become a two-sport world champion. Before she gets back to training at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of course, she’ll need to prepare for her December boxing match with Ema Kozin.

The first women’s bout of the night, also contested at 155 pounds, pitted Minnesota’s Kaitlin Young against Canada’s Julia Budd. Young, a striking specialist, gave Budd some interesting looks on the feet, particularly in the first round, but Budd was able to ply her wrestling to secure multiple takedowns en route to a well-deserved unanimous decision victory.

Successful Debut for Julia Budd! Congratulations Julia!#PFLChampionship LIVE NOW
🇺🇸 ESPN+
🌍 https://t.co/WfOt9XBfzk pic.twitter.com/9w0aOaz9TX

— PFL (@PFLMMA) October 27, 2021

The win marks a successful PFL debut for Budd, who recently ended a lengthy stint with Bellator, one that included an impressive reign as the promotion’s featherweight champion. With Wednesday’s victory, she can look forward to a spot in the 2022 PFL season and a potential fight with Harrison. Budd is easily the stiffest challenge for Harrison in the PFL at present.

Young may also be invited to compete in the 2022 PFL season, but after going 1-2 in the PFL cage in 2021, it’s also possible she’ll lose her spot on the roster.

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.