Alejandra Lara is the former Bellator’s women’s flyweight title challenger, who renewed her contract with the promotion right after her last fight. Both sides were working on her return to the cage before PFL purchased Bellator. Unfortunately for the Colombian fighter, those plans were not only put on hold with the purchase but eventually led to her contract termination.
To be honest, Lara wasn’t surprised by the release, as she expected cuts that might come with the purchase. Still, that doesn’t change the fact, that she was disappointed with it.
During her interview with the Hablemos MMA YouTube channel, Alejandra Lara said in Spanish:
“The news didn’t catch me completely by surprise. I had considered it and spoke about it with my manager. Keeping in mind my recent record, I knew there was a possibility, but that was never something that kept me down. I had a big jump early in my career, so this is an opportunity to slow things down. Bellator wanted me to fight, and they had me waiting, but with the switch the person that now makes the decision is not the same.”
She also said that no one from PFL has contacted her. What’s worse for her, she wasn’t paid any money for her remaining fights, although the PFL wasn’t obliged to do so. In her mind what led to her release was her four-fight losing streak. On the other hand, according to ‘Azul’ PFL was too hasty to do so when you take into consideration that all those losses came by the decisions – two split and two against the opponents who didn’t make weight.
“I never like to make excuses, but they were great fights and at the time I had that situation with my back where I couldn’t wrestle, and in the last camp I had difficulty just lifting my leg. So after putting that behind me, I felt I was putting that part of my career behind me, but I did keep in mind the possibility that PFL maybe wouldn’t want me because they don’t know me and that hadn’t seen my fights. They just looked at my record, saw I lost the most recent ones, and that’s fine. I don’t blame them, but I have evolved so much as an athlete.
Despite all of this, Lara looks at the future with a big dose of optimism:
“Remember, I started at the top. I started by fighting the best in the world, and from there I began to get better. I know that now I’m at that level now, so I’m not scared of the future, and I’m very calm because you just have to go and earn what’s yours. I’m not scared of the future, and I’m living in the present.”
She currently trains in San Diego with Cat Zingango and IIlima-Lei MacFarlane. As far as the future goes she’s excited to test the MMA market as a free agent.
“Planning has never been my thing, but we’ve obviously looked at scenarios and there are possibilities in Latin America, the U.S., Asia. A lot of things can happen, so we’ll see what offers come and what’s best for us.”
