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2024 will see the best of the PFL battle the best of the newly acquired Bellator in a bunch of champion versus champion super fights.
Bellator has two champions that the PFL doesn’t, which are bantamweight and middleweight champions, but despite that, don’t expect to see middleweight or bantamweight division coming to the PFL in the foreseeable future.
“There’s two big divisions, 185 and 135, where Bellator has probably the two best fighters in the world,” Davis said at the PFL Championships post-fight press conference (transcript via Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “Patchy Mix could beat ‘Sugar’ [Sean O’Malley]. Doesn’t have the hair, but he’s got better fighting. And I think most people think either that’s a good fight or Patchy’s a slight favorite. But it’s a damn good fight. Same with Johnny [Eblen].
“So those are two divisions which may be No. 1 in the world. We didn’t want to come out with those divisions this year because that wouldn’t serve those guys. We’re going to come out with those divisions probably in 2025. So we need a full year to build divisions strong enough that they would make sense in a league season.”
Johnny Eblen is the current Bellator Middleweight Champion, while Patchy Mix is the current Bellator Bantamweight Champion.
Davis would like to use 2024 to hold a bunch of fantastic events featuring the newly acquired fighters from Bellator.
“What makes sense this year? Put on fantastic fights in these eight major events that we’ve talked about,” Davis said. “Think of the eight events as huge events on their own. When you see UFC, we all see what are the eight or 10 best events they have of their 30. We want to make these events almost that big. Two championship belts on the line for all co-mains for those. Put them in the great cities of the world, at least four in Europe, a couple in the mid-East, a couple in the Far East, maybe one in Latin America. Have each of those be tentpole events and have those be worth of a Johnny, a Patchy, the people that aren’t in the season this year, against the best opponents that would make sense.”
