PFL CEO Peter Murray Addresses Controversial Taped Event, Harrison vs. ‘Cyborg’ Possibilities

Professional Fighters League was at the forefront of some controversy last week when it came to light that its PFL Challenger Series event on April 1 was pre-recorded..

As a result, the event was flagged for suspicious activity by U.S. Integrity, a company that monitors betting markets, when odds moved significantly in favor of the winning fighters ahead of that Friday’s broadcast on FuboTV. There was some confusion regarding the event, as all prior PFL Challenger Series events aired live, and numerous sportsbooks received action on the event. That ultimately resulted in some unsettled bets in relation to the event, as well as an ongoing investigation by U.S. Integrity.

The PFL confirmed that the event was indeed taped, however, promotion gambling personality Ian Parker was not present on the broadcast nor were betting lines listed or discussed during the card.

PFL CEO Peter Murray appeared on "The MMA Hour” to further address the controversy regarding the April 1 event.

“It was a pre-recorded event. It was not promoted as a live event by the league, but we were working with our broadcast partner in FuboTV. And candidly, while we didn’t promote it as live betting or integrate betting, odds or content into the broadcast, there was confusion,” Murray said. “Confusion among fans, confusion among the sportsbook community and we take it very serious. We have addressed it directly with regulators and we have addressed it with sportsbooks. While in our view we didn’t do anything wrong, technically, we’re accountable.

“As a world class organization and as a media entity, we pride ourselves on communication. We’ve addressed that internally to ensure that will never happen again,” he continued. “It was our only pre-recorded event ever. We have an impeccable record over four years of executing live events with multiple sportsbooks, taking bets in the U.S. and internationally. We don’t plan on having any pre-recorded events going forward. A learning moment, and it’ll be a blip. But we take it very, very seriously.”

The 2022 PFL season is set to begin on April 20. One of the promotion’s marquee divisions is women’s lightweight, and that is attributed almost entirely to the presence of two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison. The two-time defending PFL champion tested the waters of free agency before re-signing with the organization earlier this year, and she’ll make her first appearance of 2022 against Marina Mokhnatkina on May 6.

While many in the MMA community were interested in seeing Harrison test her skills against top talents in other organizations rather than returning to PFL, where she has dominated, Murray says the promotion is willing to step outside the box to book the 155-pound champ in interesting bouts. One matchup of particular intrigue would be a showdown with Bellator featherweight queen Cristiane Justino.

“Kayla wants that fight. We believe Cris wants that fight,” Murray said. “If we couldn’t make it happen between the two organizations, being the PFL and Bellator, as a cross promotion and a joint event — which we’re still open to — we’ll take another path to see if we can put that together.”

“Cyborg” is scheduled to defend her featherweight crown next in a rematch against Arlene Blencowe at Bellator 279 on April 23.