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PFL founder Donn Davis was dissatisfied to lose Kayla Harrison however stays assured that the promotion will get alongside simply positive with out her.
After securing her sixteenth profession win in opposition to Aspen Ladd on the 2023 PFL World Championships final 12 months, Davis was underneath the impression that Harrison had yet one more battle on her contract. Then out of the blue, his star was gone. The 2-time Olympic gold medalist unceremoniously walked away from the PFL to signal with the UFC. Scheduled to make her promotional debut on April 13 at UFC 300, Harrison is about to sq. off with former bantamweight ladies’s champion Holly Holm.
Talking on Harrison’s exit throughout an look on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Davis supplied his sincere tackle what occurred between the 2 events and his response to shedding their greatest star.
“I don’t know,” Davis stated. “And I talked to Kayla, and I consider Kayla and I’ve an excellent relationship, and I don’t know [what happened]. So I can solely speculate and I don’t actually like to take a position about issues which are about different individuals.
“So one, I don’t know, and two, I’m dissatisfied. So I feel – not like Dana [White] when he talks about different fighters, tends to be unfavourable in the event that they depart, tends to be unfavourable in the event that they don’t do what UFC needs them to do – right here, I’m dissatisfied. PFL, in six years, has by no means misplaced a fighter, and keep in mind, in 12 months one and 12 months two and 12 months three, PFL was not a powerful firm. We’re a brand new firm, so there have been many causes for fighters to depart they usually by no means did. Now, did we launch up fighters? Sure. Did we improve fighters? Sure, as a result of we had been all the time getting higher. By no means had a fighter depart, so that is the primary time in six years.
“And satirically, PFL had by no means been stronger and the matchups we had for Kayla Harrison, had been higher than the matchups she was going to get at UFC. She was going to battle Cris Cyborg, which I consider is the most important battle accessible within the ladies’s division doable. It’s a legacy, profession assertion battle for her. [Then] Larisa Pacheco, who beat her honest and sq.. So Kayla’s, name it subsequent two to a few fights at PFL are tougher than they’re at UFC, are greater than they’re at UFC. So I don’t know. I actually can’t clarify her motivations for leaving, and I used to be dissatisfied.”
Making her PFL debut in 2018, Kayla Harrison amassed a formidable 16-1 document with all, however considered one of her fights coming contained in the Sensible Cage. Regardless of coming up short for the first time in opposition to Larissa Pacheco within the 2022 PFL ladies’s light-weight ultimate, Harrison was nonetheless primed for a conflict with reigning Bellator ladies’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg.
The battle was all, however assured after the PFL absorbed Bellator late last year, however with Harrison’s transfer to the UFC, there’s a powerful chance that we’ll by no means see Harrison vs. Cyborg come to fruition.
Donn Davis believes the PFL will get alongside simply positive with out Kayla Harrison
It’s an unlucky realization for Davis, however he stays assured that the promotion will transfer ahead and set up itself because the co-leader of blended martial arts within the coming years relatively than persevering with to be a distant second to Dana White and Co.
“That being stated, as a result of PFL has by no means been stronger – 80 fighters ranked within the high 25, 33 fighters ranked within the high 15 – we’re positive,” Davis defined. “It’s nearly like when individuals put up about UFC, they’re all the time positive if Connor’s not combating this 12 months or one thing like that. So our model, our rankings, our financials, zero impression to Kayla not being right here.
“However personally, I don’t like when any fighter leaves. So I want she was right here.”
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