The trash talk is heating up, but not between the fighters involved
in the potential matchup.
On Tuesday, undefeated free agent Kayla
Harrison (12-0) re-signed with Professional Fighters League when the
organization utilized matching rights to keep her under contract.
Offers from the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator MMA were beaten by the PFL’s unexpectedly
large war chest, thereby keeping the two-time Olympic gold medalist
under its banner. Following the signing, Bellator chief Scott Coker
expressed his disappointment to
MMA Junkie that Harrison was kept under lock and key with
PFL.
“With Kayla right now, I don’t know who she’s going to fight over
there,” Coker said in his interview with MMA Junkie Radio. “She’s
got to fight the girls that are the dominant girls in that weight
class, [who] are ‘Cyborg’ [Cristiane
Justino], to me, the greatest female fighter of all time,
Amanda
Nunes, and then Kayla. She’s growing, she’s doing very well,
but she’s got to fight somebody to really showcase that she has the
ability to fight at that elite level.”
While lamenting that the contract negotiations did not go in
Bellator’s favor, Coker shrugged off the potential future
matchmaking options for Harrison in the PFL banner. In her run
towards a $1 million check in 2021, the judoka defeated women with
records of 16-10, 16-6, 4-1 and 3-1. With betting odds as high as
-4000 in the finals, she cruised through the tournament by
recording four finishes, with three ending in the first round.
Harrison holds the majority of the women’s records in the
organization, and she is fast approaching all-time records
regardless of gender. Despite this, PFL founder and chairman Donn
Davis has some ideas in mind for his star signee.
Hey @ScottCoker
… who is @criscyborg
fighting over there at @BellatorMMA?
🤔😂To settle this nonsense:
Kayla vs. Cyborg
Loser pays event production costs@PFLMMA is IN
… @KaylaH is
INWhat about Bellator and Cyborg?https://t.co/6j5JIUFeJ0
— Donn Davis (@DonnDavisPFL)
March 11, 2022
Via his Twitter
account on Friday, Davis challenged Coker to a promotion vs.
promotion fight card, with the primary focus on Harrison vs.
“Cyborg.” In his callout, he made light of potential competition
for Justino as a Bellator fighter. Justino smashed through
opposition since joining Bellator in 2020, claiming the
featherweight strap from Julia Budd
and defending it three times against Arlene
Blencowe, Leslie
Smith and Sinead
Kavanagh. The dominance of Justino has forced the promotion to
already schedule rematches with women she had finished within the
last two years, as “Cyborg” vs. Blencowe 2 is on the books for
April. Davis made sure to point that out.
“Hey Scott Coker, who is ‘Cris Cyborg’ fighting over there at
Bellator,” Davis challenged, with accompanying mocking emoticons.
“To settle this nonsense: Kayla vs. ‘Cyborg.’ Loser pays event
production costs. PFL is IN, Kayla is IN. What about Bellator and
‘Cyborg’?”
Coker, who will be running Bellator 276 on Saturday evening, has
yet to respond to the public challenge. Should this come to
fruition, it would not be the first time that a Coker-helmed league
has co-promoted with another organization. When running Strikeforce, he partnered with EliteXC and Dream as well as M-1 Global to put on events. As the president of
Bellator, he has teamed up with Rizin Fighting Federation to stage fight cards
in Japan and share fighters between the promotions.