Opportunity is knocking on the PFL Door
Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
With the PFL officially acquiring Bellator MMA and looking to shake up the landscape of mixed martial arts as we know it, there’s a chance for them to do things that the UFC is not doing. Take advantage of a huge pool of fighters that are being overlooked.
“Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.” Dr. Jordan Peterson
The UFC seems to have done away with the Women’s featherweight division when Amanda Nunes decided to retire. Bellator has taken that division and its Champion Cris Cyborg and created some pretty great cards with her headlining her last few title defenses. The PFL’s 2019 and 2021 women’s lightweight champion, Kayla Harrison proved not only that she can make weight to compete there, but she can win too. It’s a fight PFL Chairman Donn Davis said he’d like to see and will probably happen since both women have mentioned each other in the past. Davis said in his appearance on The MMA Hour, “Everybody will have more opportunities.” If it does happen, the feedback they get from an event like that, if positive should make them pursue other weight classes that Bellator didn’t have before. Like the flyweight and atomweight classes.
Peso Mosca
That’s flyweight in Spanish and if you know that already it is because fighters like Brandon Moreno not only draw fans, but he was one of the fighters that lit a fire under Dana White to start “Noche UFC.” There are a lot of fighters in that class that are just as much fun as Moreno.
For fans who have been paying attention, fighters in the flyweight division do not produce boring fights. Even when Demetrius Johnson was at the top of the 125-pound UFC food chain, the matches he had were far from slow-paced or boring. He currently is one of ONE Championship’s top draws.
Children of The Atom
They are far from children, but the phrase is a reference to one of Capcom’s most popular fighting games that played like “Street Fighter” and featured Marvel’s X-Men. Women like former Invicta FC Atomweight champion, “Lionheart” Jillian DeCoursey and ONE Championship’s current Atomweight champion, Stamp Fairtex would have more opportunity to showcase their skills to a broader audience. Not to mention, if the PFL/Bellator MMA recipe works, they would be frontrunners ahead of that talent since the UFC doesn’t have an atomweight division.
It’s easy to look at the negative and what could have been done better when it comes to how Bellator MMA could have kept going and the options out there. There’s plenty of negativity on the internet but once you get past that, it is just that, in the past. Now, maybe let’s look ahead to the future and see if fans and fighters can have some fun with what comes next.
