Via his recent live fan Q&A with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, PFL founder Donn Davis spoke more in detail about the current situation regarding Patrício Pitbull. The Bellator legend was recently granted his release from the promotion after being outspoken over the past several weeks about wanting to leave so that he could fight elsewhere.
Pitbull had said that he wasn't being offered fights and had reached a point where he had already made up his mind about fighting for another promotion, with one specific destination in mind. Davis argued against this during the Town Hall interview where he gave more context from the PFL's point of view.
Davis said that the reason this had been going on for several weeks is because the promotion was trying to keep Pitbull with them by making a deal work. He said that they also tried to get the Bellator featherweight champion to fight the only bout left on his contract before leaving, with a huge clash against Aaron Pico being the option that they were heading in.
Pitbull quickly posted a response on X where he claimed that both of these points aren't a fair reflection of the communications between the two parties.
"Hi @DonnDavisPFL, let’s keep things true all the way. You never oficially offered me the fight with Pico, and I never said no. Pete told my management that Pico was the number 1 choice but he might be hitting free agency and if so you’d find someone else. Also…
"You never said 'fight for us this one time and we will let you go'. You said my 15 years in Bellator provided value for them and now you wanted me to provide value for PFL. And Pete said you’d exercise every legal right you guys had to prevent me from going to the competition."
Loading tweet...
Pitbull added one more message to the statement, stating that he will continue to dispute any claims that he believes aren't factual. The 37-year old said that he doesn't want to have to continue talking negatively about the promotion but he will if the truth isn't being put out there.
"I had all the intention of leaving everything behind and not talking about it anymore, but if I see any lies about me out there I won’t stay silent. As I said on our last conversation @DonnDavisPFL I hope @PFLMMA improves and can succeed, so do not go this route."
Loading tweet...