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UFC champ Kayla Harrison once humiliated ‘Impractical Jokers’ star in hilarious punishment

Originally posted on Bloody Elbow
By Christopher De Santiago | Last updated Jun 9, 2025 1:17 AM ET

Years before she was crowned champion at UFC 316, Kayla Harrison made a cameo on hit TV show ‘Impractical Jokers’.

It was a long road to UFC gold for Kayla Harrison, a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist in judo and PFL Lightweight Champion.

After years of running through women outside the UFC, Harrison proved she was the best bantamweight on the planet with a dominant submission win over Julianna Peña in the co-main event of UFC 316.

Now on the verge of a super-fight with the women’s MMA ‘GOAT’ Amanda Nunes, we take a look back at Harrison’s rise to fame.

Kayla Harrison judo flipped Murr on Impractical Jokers in 2017

In 2017, a year after her final Olympic title win, Harrison guest starred on season six of ‘Impractical Jokers’, a reality TV show that sees four friends compete against each other in embarrassing challenges in public.

On episode 24, titled ‘The Wedding Crasher’, James ‘Murr’ Murray faced his ‘punishment’ for losing his previous challenges.

The punishment? A fight with Harrison in front of a crowded cocktail party.

“We invited another friend to this party,” Sal Vulcano told Murr from behind the scenes.

“Turn to your right, you’ll see our friend Kayla—she’s a two-time [Olympic gold medalist]. This is your punishment: take her out…”

Pretending to be a college buddy of Harrison’s, ‘Murr’ initiated the grappling exchanges with Harrison five separate times at the event, the last seeing the ‘Impractical Joker’ dumped into a swimming pool in front of dozens of party guests.

Kayla Harrison says she’s more famous for ‘Impractical Jokers’ than her legendary judo career

‘Impractical Jokers’ has a pretty sizable fanbase and the UFC champion stated in the past more people knew her from the reality TV show than for her Olympic Gold Medals.

“I’m more famous for Impractical Jokers than I am anything else,” Harrison told Jim Varsallone in 2019.

“It’s modern pop culture, right?” Harrison added.

“Like, obviously, judo is a very, very niche sport, especially in the United States.

“It’s a very small amount of people who participate, let alone know about it. The Olympics is every four years, so you literally get fifteen minutes of fame and then you’re forgotten. That’s our society, and that’s okay.”

Harrison also said she was offered a job by ‘Impractical Jokers’ following her judo beatdown of Murr.

“They were like, hey, you wanna come follow us around and beat Murr up? I was like, I’m kinda pursuing something, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll give you guys a call.

“Plan B. Murr’s personal beat up machine,” Harrison added.

This article first appeared on Bloody Elbow and was syndicated with permission.

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