Patricio Pitbull was to Bellator what Michael Jordan was to the NBA or Tiger Woods to golf! A sport and generation-defining star. The former concurrent double champ, of course, became most people’s pick for the greatest ever. But alas, with Bellator changing ownership two years ago, things spiraled to the point that Pitbull could no longer stay in the promotion. And in February, Pitbull followed suit and signed with the UFC joining the likes of Michael ‘Venom’ Page and Michael Chandler who had followed the same path.

Moreover, the Brazilian will be welcomed to the Octagon by the former interim 145lbs champ, Yair Rodriguez on the main card of UFC 314. The veteran of course, is not the only big star who has left Bellator. In recent times, the PFL-Bellator entity has seen a veritable exodus of big stars like AJ McKee, Gegard Mousasi, and Aaron Pico. So what led to the Jordan of Bellator choosing to leave the Chicago Bulls? Let’s find out!

Why did Patricio Pitbull leave PFL? Comments on Donn Davis

Things got bad between Patricio Pitbull and Bellator right after the promotion was taken over by the Donn Davis-led PFL back in late 2023. At the time, fans had high hopes for this new Bellator-PFL entity. The UFC, of course, has a monopolistic hold on the sport. While that means it gets the very best talent and puts on the best fights in the sport, it also opens the door to some less-than-savory business practices in terms of fighter contracts and fighter pay. Take the UFC’s anti-trust lawsuit for example.

So having this huge new MMA promotion, the second-biggest after the UFC (or as Donn Davis calls it, ‘co-leaders’) was seen as a potential competitor to Dana White and Co.’s dominance. But alas, the PFL failed spectacularly and bungled one of the greatest potential openings in MMA history. How exactly? We’ll let Patricio Pitbull explain.

“Donn Davis is an investor, he’s a promoter, but he came out and said he doesn’t watch MMA, he doesn’t watch the fights. So how can you tell people to watch the fights? They didn’t keep up with their promises to honor fighter contracts, cut a lot of people,” the Brazilian former double champ told Ariel Helwani last December.

“So it creates a sense of insecurity for all of us. There’s a lot of things they need to do as a promotion and I really hope they do. Do something good with the right mindset, but I’m not expecting that. I don’t have all the time to wait,” he added.

Like most of his fellow Bellator stars, Pitbull was especially incensed at personally not getting enough dates. In addition, as you can see, he was also sticking up for fellow fighters, who he felt were being stiffed by the PFL. But his comments on Helwani were nothing compared to what he had to say a month later, in January 2025, in a lengthy X rant.

“Self-called co-leader in MMA and fighters first organization is cutting a bunch of fighters and forcing others to take pay cuts of up to 70 percent. No respect for fighter contracts and what they’ve accomplished,” Pitbull tweeted.

“The self-called fighters first organization is also changing its contracts so it’s almost impossible for fighters to be free agents and to leave on free agency… The self-called co-leader in MMA is ghosting some fighters/managers and leaving them with no answers while the owner makes silly and disrespectful posts on social media,” Pitbull continued in a series of tweets.

But the last straw for the Brazilian seems to have been a contract dispute between him and the PFL. This is where he felt Donn Davis and Co. were lowballing him. As you can see by his X posts, it was pretty clear that the Bellator GOAT contender had decided he was leaving the company. Moreover, he was sure to burn any bridges he had with the promotion.

“You wanna know why I’ve been silent for so long? I had a direct chat with [Davis] and he said [PFL CEO Peter Murray] would talk to us and we’d come to a 50-50 agreement, which turned out to be a 100-0 stance in favor of PFL and them feeding media with fake news about my contract,” Pitbull wrote in another X post.

“I’ve seen Donn’s tweets and had to hold myself not to react to them. But after Pete Murray started ghosting us since last week and the official death of Bellator, while hearing about how some fighters are being sent absurd, never-ending low-pay deals, I just couldn’t stay silent,” he added.

For the unversed, Pitbull just fought once under the PFL banner after Bellator was acquired in late 2023. That lone appearance saw him successfully defend his strap with a KO win over Jeremy Kennedy in March 2024. Including his last fight, Pitbull went 24-6 in Bellator. However, with the recent troubles, there was no coming back from this. According to the former double champ, the PFL was threatening to keep him in the promotion since it seems he had some more fight left on his Bellator contract. But this rant seems to have changed the PFL’s mind.

PFL Founder hits back at Patricio Pitbull, & releases him

A few days after Patricio Pitbull’s X rant, Donn Davis and Co. indeed released Patricio Pitbull from his Bellator/PFL contract. And if the PFL co-founder and chairman are to be believed, the Brazilian was blowing things out of proportion. Davis, to his credit, was extremely respectful of Pitbull and everything he had done for Bellator.

“Full respect for Pitbull. Nobody’s done more for Bellator, the company we acquired than he did. You even saw that in our social media post. Most fights, most wins, the biggest brand of a fighter in Bellator history. Total respect, point one,” Davis said. The entrepreneur admitted that he indeed wanted to keep the Brazilian superstar in the promotion. But ultimately respected Pitbull’s wishes to look for greener pastures in the UFC.

“We wanted him here. So we were trying to work out a way for him to be here… Yes. So why did, ultimately, I do it [release Pitbull]? Because he didn’t want to be here. This is about opportunity. PFL is about opportunity… We want people who want that opportunity. He said, ‘Look, I wouldn’t go anywhere other than the UFC. But can I have that opportunity?’ We said sure, done. Nothing more than that,” Davis added.

While Pitbull contradicted Davis’ claims of how amicable their talks leading up to his exit were, the important thing is that the legend was released from the promotion in the end. Now he is hours away from making his UFC debut at UFC 314. And that too in a tough stylistic matchup against #5 ranked featherweight, Yair Rodriguez. If he wins this one, he will be in the title mix straight away. What do you think about the circumstances of Patricio Pitbull’s exit from Bellator?