Moving on from the PFL to the UFC was no easy thing for Kayla Harrison.

PFL was her first and, essentially, only home since migrating in 2016 from the world of Olympic-level judo — one she conquered twice with a pair of gold medals — to that of mixed martial arts, while UFC has been the leading promotional outfit in the sport for nearly two decades, with a rich history of being the it place to be for fighters.

But if there’s one factor of the equation that added up to her arrival in the UFC on which she’s all-in, it can be summed up in one word: elbows.

“Hell yeah! Now you’re speaking my language,” said Harrison in a recent video call with The Post, regarding the freedom to throw ‘bows with impunity unlike the season-centric PFL. “Now that, I am excited about.”

Harrison, whose arrival with the UFC was announced by CEO Dana White on Jan. 23, pointed to the only fight of her career contested outside of PFL — she was permitted to compete for Invicta FC in November 2020 when that year’s season did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic — as proof positive that elbow strikes can be a game-changer for her.

In that fight, a second-round TKO of Courtney King in career-lightweight Harrison’s only featherweight tilt, the first MMA elbow strike thrown by Harrison once the action hit the ground busted open her opponent.

The crimson painting Harrison created from there could serve as a harbinger of things to come with all eight limbs set to be unleashed in the UFC.

“It totally changed the outcome and the flow of the fight,” said Harrison of being able to land legal elbow strikes for the first time. “So I do think it was to my detriment that, for my entire career basically, I haven’t been able to utilize that. And I’m really looking forward to doing so. 

“I must have really, naturally sharp elbows,” she added, with light-hearted braggadocio.

Harrison, who claimed 78 kg Olympic gold at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, will look to put those elbows to use when she makes her promotional debut against Holly Holm — herself a Hall of Famer and former champion boxer who knows a little about finding two-sport success — at UFC 300 on April 13.

Both women have won championships in MMA as well, with Harrison a two-time season winner for PFL and Holm the woman to finally end Ronda Rousey’s years-long reign as UFC (and previously Strikeforce) bantamweight champion.

That Harrison and Rousey also were longtime teammates on the U.S. judo team had to have factored at least somewhat into the matchmaking.

Harrison will be meeting Holm down at 135 pounds, a weight at which the UFC newcomer has yet to compete in MMA and one that has drawn speculation that the thickly muscled Harrison may have trouble hitting the mark on the scale.

But Harrison says a test weight cut went well, and she’s working to trim down her physique for a more comfortable lifestyle and ability to make weight.

“The goal is to get lower,” Harrison said. “I’m going to have to lose some lean mass. I’m gonna have to lose some muscle. We took that into account.”

All the same, Harrison is not expecting she will look drastically different to the naked eye once she stands on the scale in Las Vegas the day before facing Holm.

Her last experience fighting at a lower weight for the first time taught her to keep expectations in check.

“You know, man, I really thought in mind head, when I did fight at 145, I was like, ‘Oh, dude, I’m gonna be shredded, and I’m gonna have abs, and they’re gonna look at me and be like, Woah,’ And I looked exactly the same but slightly smaller,” Harrison recalled before adding with a laugh, “so I’m not holding my breath or anything, but I might look exactly the same but slightly smaller.”

Even with such big changes, cutting weight figures to be a regular and not-so-fun part of her career going forward.

That wasn’t the case when she was racking up victories competing at 155 pounds for nearly her entire MMA career.

In fact, Harrison has been a vocal critic of the practice of cutting weight, a position which she echoed again in speaking with The Post, saying, “I don’t think it sends the right message to kids.”

In acknowledging the hypocrisy of her new reality, the mother of two young children drew on an axiom to which fellow parents can relate.

“It was one of those parenting moments where you say, ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’ ” said Harrison of coming to terms with doing something she continues to despise.

“I feel like I walked the walk for a long time. I fought at the weight that I naturally weighed. I fought bigger, stronger, tougher girls, and I’m at a point in my career where there’s one more thing I want. And this is what it takes to get it. And, f–k it, I’m all in.”