Kayla Harrison Calls for Cris Cyborg Fight After Dominant Win vs. Aspen Ladd

In the wake of the PFL's purchase of Bellator earlier this week, Kayla Harrison has issued the challenge for a long-awaited match with Cris Cyborg.

Following her win over Aspen Ladd on Friday night, Harrison called out the Bellator women's featherweight champion.

"PFL just acquired Bellator," Harrison said. "I heard there's a girl in Bellator who thinks she's a bad b--ch. Why don't we find out?"

Even though Cyborg's name wasn't used, she clearly knew who Harrison was referring to.

There have been rumors about a potential Harrison-Cyborg bout for a long time. Harrison told MMA Fighting's Damon Martin in August she was certain the fight was going to happen, but Cyborg wound up re-signing with Bellator.

Even though there was speculation at the time about Bellator's future, it was still a separate organization that made a showdown with Harrison impossible.

It was officially announced on Monday that PFL purchased Bellator after a lot of speculation about the future of the mixed martial arts organization.

The announcement does note Bellator will run its own events in 2024, but all fighters under a Bellator contract "will become part of the PFL platform and available to compete in PFL fight franchises."

Now that PFL and Bellator are operating under the same umbrella, there's no reason not to make the match between two of the best mixed martial artists in the world. It won't happen right away since Cyborg has a boxing match against Kelsey Wickstrum scheduled for Jan. 19.

Harrison defeated Ladd by unanimous decision in a catchweight bout on Friday night. The 33-year-old was originally set to challenge former Bellator women's featherweight champion Julia Budd on the show, but Budd was removed from the card for refusing to "fulfill her contractual obligation."

A two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, Harrison has a 16-1 career record in 17 MMA fights.

Cyborg defeated Budd for the Bellator featherweight title in January 2020 and has successfully defended it five times, most recently defeating Cat Zingano via TKO on Oct. 7. The Brazilian star is 27-2-1 with 21 knockouts in her MMA career.