It's not the news that the PFL elected to release former Bellator middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi from his contract on Thursday that was so shocking. Mousasi has been complaining in the media about the PFL for a while now, and when he referred to the promotion as "the worst" during an interview Wednesday on "The MMA Hour," it clearly sealed his fate.
No, the shocking part of this is that management at the PFL, the organization that not-so-subtly bashes the UFC regularly by referring to its "fighter first" policies, created this mess out of whole cloth.
In November, the PFL acquired Bellator, which was on life support given the common knowledge in the industry that then-owner Paramount would exit combat sports by the end of 2023. Bellator wasn't doing much in the way of either ticket sales or television ratings in its last year or two, but it was clearly No. 2 behind the UFC simply on the depth of quality fighters on its roster.
In the aftermath of the Bellator acquisition, PFL founder Donn Davis made the media rounds, during which he termed the PFL "the co-leader," in terms of MMA promotion. That was sort of akin to saying the Pacific Coast League is the co-leader to Major League Baseball because it has a lot of prospects ranked by Baseball America.
Davis' larger point in those media interviews was that the MMA space is growing and that there is room in it for more than just the UFC. That is more than fair, though the industry's expansion and growth is fueled by the UFC's success and fan interest in stars such as Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Sean O'Malley, Max Holloway, Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier and Alex Pereira. The UFC has repeatedly demonstrated it knows how to build stars who sell tickets, pay-per-views and merchandise, which no other promotion in the history of the sport has proven it can do.
The PFL's pay-per-view results have been abysmal. It's a difficult time in the PPV industry, but the PFL's PPV cards have fallen flat because they don't have the names whose presence on the marquee sell. The co-leader designation falls flat at this point.
Mousasi is a good fighter and his presence on the Bellator roster going forward would have given it quality depth. But once Mousasi went public with his complaints, his release was inevitable.
Mousasi signed a new contract with Bellator last year, late in its existence as a stand-alone entity. He was a favorite of former Bellator president Scott Coker, and Coker apparently gave Mousasi a deal that was too generous for the PFL's blood.
Mousasi will be 39 in August and is on the back nine of a quality MMA career. He's 49-9-2 with 40 finishes. A two-time Bellator middleweight champion and a former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Mousasi had quality wins over the likes of Chris Weidman, Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson, Thiago Santos, Babalu, Rory MacDonald, Hector Lombard and Uriah Hall, among others.
But he's not the same fighter now that he was at his peak, and he lost his last two bouts, by decision to Johnny Eblen at Bellator 282 and Fabian Edwards at Bellator 296. He's not a ticket seller nor a pay-per-view seller. There aren't fans flocking to buy t-shirts with his image on them.
He would have been an expensive luxury for the PFL to have around. He told Ariel Helwani on "The MMA Hour" on Wednesday that the new deal he signed with Bellator was for "a couple million."
PFL/Bellator Official Fighter Roster Update pic.twitter.com/8yi9TPqE3Q
— PFL (@PFLMMA) May 23, 2024
Mousasi told Helwani his management considered legal action, but his manager, Nima Safapour, did not specifically address that in a statement he released to MMA Fighting's Damon Martin.
“We will not comment on the merits of the alleged release at this time for obvious reasons,” Safapour's statement read. “However, we believe there is a greater lesson here that our community should pay close attention to. For an organization that repeatedly claims to be ‘fighter first,’ we now truly see how PFL treats their fighters, especially their legends.”
It was especially curious in light of Davis' catty comments about former PFL champion Kayla Harrison, who signed earlier this year with the UFC, during a podcast with John McCarthy and Josh Thomson. Davis would have been far better off dodging the question or praising Harrison instead of essentially saying she's a follower who needs the validation of being in the UFC.
The Mousasi deal will probably wind up in court, and who knows when Mousasi will be able to fight again? Time is of the essence in his situation.
This is something that should have been caught during the PFL's due diligence when it was finalizing the purchase of Bellator. These things happen occasionally, but the key is that it should have been a priority to keep it from becoming an issue once it was discovered. And at the end of the day, if it had to accept the contract as a price of the acquisition, then do that. It could have cut him as soon as he lost.
It's unlikely that anyone will successfully challenge the UFC in the near future. PFL management would be wise to focus on signing the best fighters it can get, making the best fights they're able to make, producing the best broadcasts possible and delivering a first-class live fan experience.
It's still early in the game, relatively speaking. The mantra for every PFL employee should be to keep your head down, work as hard as possible to make the company all it can be and show off in the best way possible by making can't-miss shows.
Cross your Ts, dot your Is and let the product doing the talking for you.