Cris Cyborg and Kayla Harrison remain signed to different MMA organizations, but their bad blood continues.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist who became a rising star in the MMA world by winning two consecutive seasons in the PFL as a lightweight, Harrison shopped her talents around during her free agency period before eventually re-signing with PFL.
Cyborg, the Bellator featherweight queen, said she never expected Harrison to actually leave the promotion for a run in Bellator or the UFC.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Cyborg said on Wednesday’s episode of Trocação Franca , the Portuguese-language podcast of MMA Fighting. “I knew she would stay at PFL. I believe it was just [marketing], but knew she would sign with them.”
Once news broke that Harrison was leaning towards re-signing with PFL after the company matched Bellator’s offer, a tweet from Cyborg prompted a fired-up answer from Harrison.
“I think she got emotional, right?” said Cyborg, who’s scheduled to defend her Bellator featherweight title on Saturday in a main-event rematch with Arlene Blencowe at Bellator 279. “I think she got emotional. I don’t know if the eye [emoji] triggered her or what, but we have to be professionals. This is a new generation.”
Once Cyborg and Harrison were under contract once again with different promotions, many assumed the door was closed on a potential clash between the two any time soon.
However, PFL officials have voiced their interest in a possible co-promotion with Bellator to make the superfight happen.
“I believe that, for this to happen, she had to have signed with Bellator,” Cyborg said. “We don’t know what will happen in the future, if this fight will really happen. I’ll continue my work and train, now focused on Arlene [Blencowe], and not think right now about people I might fight in the future. I’ll just focus on Arlene now.”
That future, as it turns out, may include bouts in different sports for the Brazilian star.
Cyborg has knocked out opponents in 20 of her 25 wins, including stoppages of Julia Budd, Marloes Coenen, Gina Carano and Leslie Smith, and has tested herself under Muay Thai rules twice nearly a decade ago, going the distance in a loss to Muay Thai phenom Jorina Baars.
With the recent influx of MMA stars in the boxing world, Cyborg might also test her hands in the squared circle down the line.
Kayla is far too busy KOing women who show their assholes on the internet to take this challenge by cyborg seriously. She has a legacy to build
Kayla Harrison would’ve had Cris Cyborg in her sights had she accepted a multi-million offer from Bellator MMA. When PFL matched the ViacomCBS-owned promotion’s deal, she stayed with the promotion she’s fought under since transitioning from Olympic judo to MMA.
The PFL hasn’t given up on booking Harrison vs. Cyborg, however. PFL CEO Peter Murray still wants to make the fight happen via cross-promotion.
“We’re proponents of that,” Murray said Wednesday on The MMA Hour. “We’ve been out there and Kayla wants that fight. We believe Cris wants that fight, and if we could make it happen between the two organizations, the PFL and Bellator, as a cross-promotion and joint event, which we’re still open to, we’ll take another path to see if we can put that together.”
Murray may not have to reach across the aisle in the end. Cyborg is slated to defend her featherweight title against Arlene Blencowe at Bellator 279, and afterward, she told ESPN.com, she’ll be a free agent. That could set up another situation where the PFL comes over the top (or the same one in reverse if Bellator has matching rights with Cyborg).
So far, Coker has not appeared keen on co-promoting with the PFL, though he’s repeatedly welcomed the same idea with the industry-leading UFC. A fight between Harrison and Cyborg would represent a matchup of the No. 4 (Cyborg) and No. 9 (Harrison) fighters on the women’s pound-for-pound list in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings.
That said, Murray believes the promotion’s fourth season will present new challenges that could test Harrison.
“[Harrison vs. Cyborg is] one compelling fight, but there are others for Kayla,” he said. “This season will be her toughest season yet with our format and then longer-term, we have some opportunities to put on big fights with Kayla on pay-per-view.”
With PFL extending its broadcast partnership with ESPN, Murray believes Harrison will be a centerpiece of the promotion’s future. He hopes that includes a legacy-defining fight with Cyborg, but either way, the former Olympian will be a force to reckon with. That’s the main reason the PFL went all out to retain Harrison.
“Like every athlete, athletes have options, and in the end, our goal was not only to re-sign with ESPN, but as you said, was to continue with Kayla, and we were very thoughtful in how we approached that with Kayla directly and with her management,” he said. “That’s one of the most dominant fighters in the sport today – of course there was interest in the marketplace with competitors, but in the end, we struck the right deal and got to the right place. I’m really excited that she’s going to continue with the season this year, and she’ll be in our third event [in 2022].”
Kayla Harrison will smash her.
Cyborg sucks and is an irrelevant drug cheat.
Isn’t that what Cyborg does?
Sounds like a match made in heaven.
Cyborg is a cheater who ducked Nunes, lied about it, and released falsely edited videos and got caught. And she’s a steroid cheater with a padded record. Fuck her. Not sure why anyone takes her seriously. For fuck’s sale, she hired Tito Ortiz as her manager at one point, and I think he might legitimately be mildly retarded.
steroid cheater? You just described almost everyone in professional MMA
Cyborg has fought way more notable names in her career than Kayla. Kayla literally hasnt fought anyone recognizable or notable. Unless of course you count girls that show their assholes on the internet. Kayla is the queen at beating up them.
It’s kind of wild that Cyborg has been in the converstion through the Gina Carano years, through the Ronda Rousey years, the Amanda Nunes years and now Kayla Harrison.
Well no shit. Cyborg has been fighting for 17 years snd Kayla hasnt even hit 4 years.
Of course Cyborg has fought way more notable names. No denying that.
But her M/O is fighting soccer moms as well. It’s what she does best.
This is a fight that I would like to see.
Oh wow, long term… there could be a Harrison PPV, I’m sure the fans are just gonna lineup for that one.
Its gonna be her toughest season yet? Why because they brought back all the same fucking women from last year and a couple of UFC and Bellator washouts? Ha, you can’t make this shit up. It writes itself. What a fucking joke. Hilarious.
Lets see the 100k Bellator fans and 7k PFL fans start to demand it and maybe we will finally see this Cyborg vs Harrison MEGAFIGHT FOR THE AGES.
Remember when Cyborg left the UFC for Bellator…she then started talking about some cross promotional fight with Nunes that was never gonna happen. Now Harrison re-signs with PFL were she will have no chance to fight Cyborg and starts doing the same “give me attention on twitter” type callout Cyborg was doing with Nunes. All the while the three fighters each got belts and promotions behind them in “divisions” at FW and LW with no talent pool.