Kayla Harrison misses the days when she didn’t have to obsess about her opponent.

As a judo practitioner, Harrison (3-0) couldn’t afford to focus too much on any one opponent. With a year-round schedule and dozens of matches, there simply wasn’t enough time.

“There’s no season in judo,” Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist now fighting in the PFL, told MMAjunkie Radio. “I pretty much fought 12 to 15 times a year.

“I was also competing against multiple girls at every tournament. So it wasn’t like you had one person to prepare for. You had to prepare for the enitre roster.”

In her current gig as an MMA fighter, Harrison only has to prepare for one opponent at a time. Unlike her PFL counterparts, she fights as a featured competitor, a temporary solution to the problem of finding opponents who compete at 155 pounds.

The promotion promises to change that moving into 2019, with a lightweight female division and tournament with a $1 million prize awarded to the winner. Harrison is the odds-on favorite to run the table.

So far, Harrison has made her transition from judo to MMA look pretty easy. But the demands of the job have revealed themselves in training camp, she said.

“It’s been interesting mentally, because you don’t fight all the time,” she said. “It’s a lot harder to fight back to back with injuries and opponents, especially for females. And No. 2, thinking about one girl for six or eight or 12 weeks straight, I’ve found it’s a different kind of mental exhaustion.

“But I’m enjoying it. Part of the struggle has been allowing the experts to live inside as the beginner (in MMA). I’m a beginner in striking, I’m a beginner in wrestling, I’m a beginner in MMA. So I’m trying to finalize that balance and utilize my judo in the best way possible, but also grow as an MMA fighter.”

One thing that hasn’t changed since Harrison took off the gi and stepped into the cage is her competitive drive, which she’ll take into a fight with Moriel Charneski (0-0) at PFL 11 at Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y.

“If you talk to anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you I’m a very all-in person,” Harrison said. “I hate to lose probably more than anything in the world. I get upset if I lose at a game of cards.”

For more on PFL 11, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.