Gegard Mousasi threatens legal action against PFL: ‘I’ve fought in a lot of organizations, this is the worst one’
Gegard Mousasi is not happy with the PFL.
At the end of 2023, PFL acquired Bellator MMA in a landmark deal, which PFL executives promised would lead to a new era of MMA. Unfortunately, that new era has not extended to Mousasi, who has gotten off to a rough start with PFL, primarily over the lack of fights and even communication coming from the promotion. And after recently attending a PFL event in Paris where Mousasi still made no headway in booking a fight, the former Bellator middleweight champion has reached his limit.
“They said that the amount [of money I get paid], we don’t want to cut you, it’s so much, that it’s better for you, I don’t know, look somewhere else or do something else,” Mousasi said Wednesday on The MMA Hour.
“At this moment, I’m like, listen, if someone doesn’t want me, I’m like, ‘F*** it. Let’s go.’ But my team around me is like, ‘F*** 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,” Mousasi 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.”
Mousasi has not competed since dropping a decision to Fabian Edwards at Bellator 296 in May 2023. The former champion signed a new contract with Bellator prior to the company getting acquired, and Mousasi said he’s been told by PFL officials that they were not aware of his new contract when acquiring Bellator and that’s why he hasn’t been offered a fight.
“I think they bought Bellator but they don’t have the financial means to pay the fighters,” Mousasi said. “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 someone wanted to f*** 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.
“I don’t know why you even took Bellator if you don’t have the money to let the fighters fight.”
At 38 years old, Mousasi is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, and while he says he would rather the remaining years of his career not be spent fighting as many legal battles as physical ones, if PFL continues to refuse him, he’ll be left with no choice.
“I’ve talked to legal council, I’ve talked to managers, lawyers, other people who worked for Bellator, I know I have a contract,” Mousasi said. “They owe me at least one fight, and then they can let the clock run out. At least. So it doesn’t start until I fight. Something like that. The problem is, you never know who is going to win in a lawsuit. So I hope it doesn’t get there.”