Cris Cyborg does not like that the PFL executives are now pushing her to Larissa Pacheco without even reaching out to her after Kayla Harrison departed for UFC.
Cyborg and Harrison have been eying each other even before the PFL acquired Bellator. However, after Pacheco earned the title for the 2023 PFL Women’s Featherweight Championship, the promotion decided to prioritize the fighter over Harrison. Despite that, Cyborg and Harrison continued to call out each other, with the former saying her plan was to fight Harrison before her retirement.
Then, the unexpected happened: Harrison made the jump to sign under UFC. The female fighter will now make her debut in the company at UFC 300 as a bantamweight fighter. Needless to say, the news shocked many, with some questioning Harrison’s callouts if she would just leave the company after all.
Now, with Harrison no longer in the way, one would expect that PFL would make the booking of Cyborg vs. Pacheco immediately. However, there is still no news about the matter, while some believe that the promotion is advertently stalling it to make Cyborg slower before facing Pacheco. Even more, as Cyborg shared, the company has not reached out to her since Harrison left.
In her recent post, the fighter criticized the PFL executives Peter Murray and Donn Davis for commenting on the matter in public without even talking to her first.
In the past, Cyborg shared that she was “unwilling to have a long layoff from MMA competition and then be ‘offered’ Pacheco.” Now, the fighter said that coming back to MMA just to face the PFL talent is no longer her plan.
🗣️ @DonnDavisPFL @PeteMurrayPFL before you give interviews telling @marcraimondi what you’ve “told me” …we should probably have a conversation.
I have not spoken to anyone from @PFLMMA since Kayla left for the UFC and have no plans on making my return to MMA against @lpacchec
— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) February 25, 2024
