Not long in the past, Latin American MMA promotion Combate Global appeared to be disappearing from the sport. Events ceased, and fighters were caught in limbo. Then Combate returned in early 2026 — only to fade away again.
Now the cycle is persevering with anew, and its newest casualty to communicate out was arguably the promotion’s greatest star. At the very least, Combate invested closely in Mexican flyweight prospect Lucero Acosta and made no secret of it.
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Often referred to by her “La Loba” nickname, the 32-year-old Acosta is set to make her PFL debut this Friday against Shannon Clark in Chicago. The combat will be her first outside Combate, where she started her MMA profession in 2019.
In May, Acosta (8-2) shocked many by revealing she was no longer half of Combate. Her announcement post oozed aid, with an undertone of previous frustration:
“Finally, my contract has ended with a company that didn’t give me a chance to fight and also wouldn’t let me compete in any sport due to exclusivity issues. I lost so many opportunities for being under contract, and because of one human being’s selfishness.”
It wasn’t the first time a Combate fighter had confronted inactivity and an alleged incapacity to combat. Acosta’s previous opponent, Maritza Sanchez, coincidentally discovered herself caught in the same boat all through 2024. Sanchez finally spent 15 months sidelined before she completed the ultimate combat of her Combate contract in March 2025. But Sanchez wasn’t the company’s face, like Acosta.
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“La Loba” only fought once in two and a half years before she finally spoke out in May.
“They left us inactive for a minute,” Acosta instructed Uncrowned through an interpreter. ” So, at the end of the day, when we wanted to try and generate other types of opportunities for me, they weren’t allowing me to fight. That’s why the problems and the issues came up, because, at the end of the day, I couldn’t do jiu-jitsu, I couldn’t do any other type of fighting. I didn’t generate money. That’s what got us to this point.
“Finally, when the contract was over, this alternative [with PFL] arose, and that’s why we’re here now.”
Lucero Acosta makes her PFL debut this Friday in Chicago. (Photo credit: PFL)
Looking back, Combate underwent an eventless stretch from July 2024 to March 2025. The promotion then hosted six shows in six months, with its final coming in August 2025, before taking another extended break. Business picked back up this past February — after the year’s first two events, a March 26 show in Burbank was canceled. Two more Burbank events successfully took place in May and April — then Combate canceled nine events in the months since.
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Combate is currently planning to return Oct. 22 and has three shows scheduled for November. All are planned for Burbank.
The inactivity was an even bigger dealbreaker for Acosta, she said, because of the false starts she alleged were put in front of her. Despite attempts to stay busy, Acosta said she was blocked from competing elsewhere by Combate, both in boxing and MMA. She simply kept training and managing her bank account to the best of her abilities, she said.
Acosta’s contract expiration date saved her, she said. Per Acosta, her Combate contract included a one-year matching clause after its expiration, which is where PFL came in, offering her a six-fight, two-year deal that Combate couldn’t match.
“Combate was form of pressured to release me, because they had no approach of matching the numbers with PFL, but they stored on prolonging the course of,” Acosta said. “They wished to make me the face of Combate, which I was, but I was energetic then.
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“They didn’t pay me to sit down; they paid me to fight. So if I’m not fighting, how am I going to generate any income?”
For years after her arrival to the promotion, Combate CEO Campbell McLaren publicly touted Acosta as MMA’s greatest ladies’s star — among other issues.
When requested about her relationship with McLaren, Acosta said the two have not talked since her Combate contract expired and that she hasn’t responded to any messages she’s acquired since. There’s “nothing to talk to him about anymore,” she added.
McLaren responded to Acosta’s claims with the following assertion:
“Combate Global honored its contract with Lucero Acosta, and we expected her to do the same. We wish her luck in her post-Combate career.”
Acosta now finds herself in uncharted waters amid her promotional transition.
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While embracing the variations forward, she said she’s completely satisfied and snug. She feels no stress to set foot in the “big leagues,” as she called it.
Acosta said she hopes to maximize her exercise by combating out her first PFL contract over the next two years, with three fights a yr. But as thrilling as the change is, she’s still shocked by this entire saga.
“They did treat me well,” Acosta said. “However, they were not giving me any fights, so it was kind of hard. Then, when we wanted to go fight, that’s when I started realizing, ‘OK, this is not working out, because I’m not fighting with Combate or anything like that. But yet, they don’t let me fight outside of Combate.’
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“Then you begin realizing that that was the challenge. Because we had a bunch of provides for boxing for good, good boxing purses, and they did not permit us to combat.”
Although her momentum has been stalled, Acosta still enters PFL on a four-fight win streak. The Combate chapter in her story may have ended on a less-than-pleasant note, but she isn’t dwelling on any negatives, and instead is embracing the future.
“It was an expertise. There’s no grudge,” Acosta said. “As much as they helped me out with a profession start-up, I helped them out too, as a mutual settlement. We helped each other out. It’s a studying expertise, and I’m shifting ahead.”
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