Cyborg: PFL Relationship Is Not In A ‘Good Place’

In a recent interview, PFL president Donn Davis claimed their relationship with Cris Cyborg was ‘totally fine.’ Cyborg disagrees with that assessment.

It’s been four months since the PFL officially bought Bellator, and Cris Cyborg is not happy with how things have been going since then.

Cyborg fought for Bellator six times after leaving the UFC in 2019, going a perfect 6-0 with the promotion. She worked well with promoter Scott Coker. He wasn’t able to line up any particularly big names for Cris to fight, but that’s just the nature of the women’s featherweight division. He did keep her relatively busy, though, and let her dip her toe into the boxing world as well.

But Cyborg has been voicing her growing discontent with a lack of PFL fight offers on social media.

“My last fight was Oct. 2023,” she recently wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “What’s the date for this? I was told June. Now I’m hearing Sept. that’s 11 months between MMA fights!!! I’m healthy and ready to fight but there’s no shows being promoted for me to fight on.”

In an appearance on The MMA Hour, PFL president Donn Davis claimed his relationship with Cyborg was “totally fine,” despite her increasingly frustrated demands for some sort of update.

“Cris is certainly on the Mount Rushmore [of WMMA], some people would say the greatest of all time,” he added. “She’s a pay-per-view fighter, we’ve told her that. So when her account, whether it’s her or someone else running it, says ‘Why am I not fighting,’ she’s earned the respect of only having big fights. So I don’t understand why Bellator was fighting her in little fights.”

“She’s earned respect of big fights. So we’re only going to give her big fights. Important fights with big promotion on big stages. Because that’s what she’s earned.”

That’s a lot of smooth talking to say Cris won’t fight until the next PFL pay-per-view, whenever that may be.

“I have fights on my contract. I want those fights,” Cyborg tweeted in response. “I never agreed to only fight on PPV especially if there are no PPV events to fight on. I’m 39 in July.”

“I do not think our relationship is totally fine or in any type of a good place,” she wrote in another tweet. “Donn Davis, Pete Murray, I want a meeting in person. Let me know when you are available. I am healthy and ready to fight and PFL and Bellator are not promoting a fight for me.”

Will Cyborg and PFL brass come to an understanding in the near future, or is this brewing into another UFC situation where Dana White ended up releasing the women’s featherweight legend, declaring he was “out of the Cris Cyborg business” and that she “has been a nightmare the entire time she’s been here.”

Either way, something’s gotta give. As Cris mentioned, she’s not getting any younger. Either let her fight or let her walk!