Since buying Bellator, PFL seems to have issues with a few of its new fighters, Gegard Mousasi in particular, who has threatened to sue. The company’s new era and acquisition are off to a bad start, as Mousasi [42-6-2] claimed the company has completely ignored him and stopped picking up his calls. The fighter is amongst the recently acquired athletes from Bellator and has recently stated his distress at PFL for the disrespect he’s being treated with.
“At this moment, I’m like, listen, if someone doesn’t want me, I’m like, ‘F**k it. Let’s go.’ But my team around me is like, F**k it, we’ll sue them.’ If it was up to me, I would just go, but I don’t know. We’ll see. The team around me is not that happy. So I think there is going to be legal action against them.
“Yeah, I feel disrespected because they don’t even want to pick up the phone and talk to us,” He continued. “It’s not even funny anymore. It’s the worst organization so far. I’ve fought in a lot of organizations, this is the worst one.”
The fighter hasn’t been in his cage since his fight against Fabian Edwards at Bellator 296 in May 2023. Mousasi signed a new contract with Bellator before they were bought by PFL, but the new host is refusing to honor the contract or offer any fight or money because they were unaware of the contract. The 28-year-old believes PFL is biting off more than they can chew and is unable to pay fighters, hence the delay and avoidance.
“I think they bought Bellator, but they don’t have the financial means to pay the fighters. Whoever is not necessary, they will just not let them fight. Especially fighters that make a lot of money. Because Bellator fighters make more.
“My contract is a couple million… Whatever deal you make, it’s not possible that someone slipped a letter between the other letters and no one found out. Everything has to be signed by lawyers. So whatever they did, they knew about it. They said they’d take everyone from [Bellator]. So they took me, they knew the contract, and now they’re like, ‘well, they slipped it in.” You’re not buying McDonald’s. You’re buying a million-dollar company. It’s not believable that they didn’t know, and some wanted to f***k with them, so they did a very fast contract, and no one knew about it. It’s just not true. Everything has to go through lawyers. …”
On the other hand, PFL co-owner Donn Davis spoke about these accusations on the ‘Weighing In’ podcast with John McCarthy and Josh Thomson: “ Occasionally, we’ll have a fighter grumble. It’s one of the 205 fighters we acquired from Bellator. You expect 5 to 10 per cent issues on any deal, but you can’t be perfect. You can be 90 to 95 per cent. We’ve had a handful of people say, ‘Oh, I wish it went this way, I wish it went that way’ I’m delighted.
“I’m very proud of how we treat our fighters. How we treat our employees. Most of all, the product. We just completed our second [Bellator show] in Paris, which was awesome. … All that stuff always happens in all acquisitions. So I just could not be more proud.”
