Cris Cyborg hasn’t fought in MMA since October of 2023, and she’s starting to get a bit impatient waiting for her next bout to get booked.
Cyborg competes for Bellator, which just got bought out by the PFL. 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 says 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 featherweight champion Larissa Pacheco since the promotions merged. The big PFL vs. Bellator Champs event on February 24 in Saudi Arabia would have been the perfect place for that fight. Alas, Cris had a boxing match against Kelsey Wickstrum on January 19th and PFL didn’t want to book her in case she lost or got injured. They 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 22nd, 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 their 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. 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.