Bellator-PFL Merger ‘Has Been A Disaster’

Another Bellator champion is speaking out against the way PFL has managed the promotion since purchasing it.

Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull is sick of waiting around for PFL to schedule him and has taken to social media to speak out against the promotion for its treatment of Bellator fighters since purchasing the company in November 2023.

Pitbull (real name Freire) added his voice to complaints from fellow Bellator fighters Patchy Mix and Leandro Higo, who had their bantamweight title fight cancelled when PFL pulled the plug on a Bellator Champions Series Paris event.

“I haven’t fought since February,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “I wanted to fight 3x this year, but I was told I’d have to wait until December 31st and found out online my opponent would fight someone else. Then they had a replacement, I bring people over, spend more money with the camp and there’s no fight. They said things didn’t work out with Japan and that it wasn’t their fault. OK. So why don’t you stage a show somewhere else?”

“What kind of promotion can’t give fighters at least two fights a year?” Pitbull asked. “Some haven’t even fought this year! Bellator used to be BIG. Things worked and we always had answers. They never just cancelled a show and said they had no idea when we would be booked. Even regional promotions have dates set for April of next year already! This merger has been a disaster to the sport of MMA.”

“Meanwhile we have to see the top brass talking about offering tens of millions of dollars to social media personalities and semi-retired fighters, while cutting 90% of the roster and telling guys making 30+30 they’re too expensive. How can you become number 1 in the world if you don’t stage events and don’t want to pay fighters?”

“I am very worried about the future of Bellator and MMA in general,” Pitbull concluded. “I feel very sorry for all the fighters who didn’t even get to fight this year or were cut because they just don’t make shows or think they’re expensive, and all the fighters who were forced to take paycuts.”

This is wrong. We need answers, we need the fighters and fans to be respected. This is not a game or just some business, these are people’s lives we are talking about. A serious promotion would give fighters the chance to fight at least 3 times a year if they’re healthy.”

Bellator fighters have been treated as the red-haired stepchildren of the PFL since the promotion was bought out. The promotions remained technically separate, with PFL promising to fulfill their contractual obligations to Bellator’s broadcast partners. Less important to them, it seems, are their obligations to provide Bellator fighters with regular fights.

Patricio Pitbull is just one of a few Bellator champions to castigate the PFL for their fight scheduling. There’s bantamweight champion Patchy Mix. And Women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg was very vocal with her frustration in getting a single fight out of the company this year. For all the talk of being the No. 2 promotion in the sport based on top fighters signed, PFL needs to stop stalling out their careers.

The worst thing promoters can do to a fighter is fight them and not pay. The second worst is sign them and not fight them. We’re seeing a lot more of the second these days, and as Pitbull said, it does not bode well for the future health of the sport.