Donn Davis says Cris Cyborg will fight Larissa Pacheco next, not Kayla Harrison, Cyborg responds

PFL hosted its end-of-the-year event on Friday where it crowned six new champions of the 2023 season and then faced those champions off with the Bellator fighters in attendance promising a champion vs. champion event next season.

But one of the Bellator champions was noticeably missing from the broadcast ... Cris "Cyborg" Justino, the featherweight titleholder under the Bellator banner. When asked post-fight if her absence was due to her potentially fighting Kayla Harrison instead of Larissa Pacheco, Davis assured her it was not.

“It’s champ vs. champ. Larissa has earned that. But will Cris then fight Kayla in 2024? One-hundred percent. That is going to happen. Cris will have two fights in 2024, Kayla will have two fights in 2024, and one of those will be Cris against Kayla. We think that Larissa has earned that, Davis said. “Once again, you have to do champ vs. champ. Cris is the champ of Bellator. Larissa is the champ here. We have to see that fight happen first. Coming out of that, you’ll see Cris Cyborg vs. Kayla Harrison as the next fight in 2024.”

Cris Cyborg calls out PFL for lack of contact 'One thing I will control is how my career finishes'

Unfortunately, it appears as though Justino hasn't been kept in the loop about PFL's plan.

"Lots of plans being made and announced," she tweeted during the broadcast. "I have not had any contact with anyone from PFL since news of the SRJ Sports purchase. One thing I will control is how my career finishes."

She followed that up with another tweet writing, "Company culture and the way I am going to be treated as I finish the final fights of my career are a priority."

"They had two women call me out last night but for some reason I was one of the only champions not contacted to attend the event" she also tweeted.

Fans were disappointed to hear Davis' plans for Justino, citing that the Harrison fight is a much bigger fight and would have made more sense for the merger, despite the champ vs. champ status.

The only other two Bellator champions that were not in attendance were Vadim Nemkov and Usman Nurmagomedov, who is currently serving a suspension.