Over the past few weeks, a number of Bellator stars have requested their release from the promotion, now housed under the PFL banner.
Among them, featherweight champ Patricio Pitbull, considered by many to be among the best 145lb’ers of his generation.
Bellator has seen three shows cancelled this year, nearly halving their planned number of events in 2024, with eight shows initially announced. Dates in Chicago, Paris, and Tokyo have all fallen by the wayside. In addition to Pitbull, fighters like Patchy Mix and Corey Anderson have voiced displeasure at how things have panned out for them under the PFL’s ownership.
My manager told me to hold off but haven’t heard anything from @PFLMMA @DonnDavisPFL If you are not gonna have me fight then just please release me from contract.This is not what I want but if I’m not important to the company being a multi time champ. Then let me go respectfully
— Patchy Mix (@TeamMixMMA) December 5, 2024
The situation wound up discussed during the UFC 310 post-fight press conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, where UFC CEO and President Dana White was asked if he’d be interested in bringing Pitbull into the promotion.
“The last couple months we’ve been talking a lot about the PFL. They’re cancelling a lot of shows, I know a lot of guys that are supposed to fight aren’t fighting,” observed White, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “You guys know what the f*ck is going on. When you see that start to happen, you’re running out of money, things aren’t looking good, and you have people that want to jump ship.”
While not addressing Patricio Pitbull directly — he likely can’t, given Pitbull is under contract — White did note that “These guys want to fight. You have a very limited time of opportunity when you’re a professional athlete, and even less when you’re a fighter. So I’m sure you’re going to see a lot of that, and we’ll see how this plays out over the next several months going into 2025.”
Watch the full UFC 310 post-fight press conference with Dana White above.
