Cris Cyborg continues to hound PFL: ‘Can I get a fight during first half of 2024?’

Cris Cyborg hasn’t competed in mixed martial arts (MMA) since Oct. 2023 (watch highlights), and she’s starting to get a bit impatient waiting for her next bout to get booked.

Cyborg competes for Bellator MMA, which was just acquired by Professional Fighters League (PFL) in a landmark merger. While PFL heads Donn Davis and Pete Murray have talked about how important she is to their plans to grow as the No. 2 promotion after UFC, she claims their actions haven’t matched the rhetoric.

“Jan, Feb, March, April, May, June,” Cyborg wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “PFL or Bellator can I get a fight booked during the first half of 2024?! Pete Murray, Donn Davis. The longer I sit without an MMA fight the less likely Larissa Pacheco fight happens in 2024. My last MMA fight was Oct.”

Cyborg has been pushing to fight PFL women’s Featherweight champion, Larissa Pacheco, since the promotions merged. The big “PFL vs. Bellator” event on Feb. 24, 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, would have been the perfect place for that fight. Alas, Cyborg had a boxing match against Kelsey Wickstrum on Jan. 19, 2024, and PFL didn’t want to book her in case she lost or got injured.

It didn’t have to worry: Cyborg won that bout just 1:21 into the first round.

If a crossover fight with Pacheco can’t happen yet because of the divide between promotions (PFL and Bellator will reportedly continue to operate their separate rosters barring occasional crossover events), there’s always a fight with Leah McCourt in Belfast. Bellator 303 is set to go down there on March 22, 2024, and the only bout currently booked is local Karl Moore vs. Corey Anderson for the vacant Light Heavyweight title.

The only problem there: few give McCourt much of a chance against Cyborg. Is PFL willing to feed one of its developing Irish stars to her? It’s also a bummer watching all the hometown fighters lose, which is how things would be looking at the top of this card.

Just ask a Canadian how they feel about UFC 297.

In the end, Cyborg may have to continue her slow and steady venture into boxing if she can’t get an MMA fight booked soon enough for her liking.

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