Javid Basharat has warned fighters to ‘not put your career in the hands of other people’ following his UFC release.Despite winning his last UFC bout, Basharat, who makes his PFL debut in Tampa, Florida, live on talkSPORT this weekend as part of Cris Cyborg’s retirement card, was let go by Dana White‘s promotion in February.Basharat won four of his six UFC fights and the promotion decided against renewing his contract despite a win in his last appearanceGettyThe 30-year-old British-Afghan bantamweight had claimed his fourth UFC win on a Las Vegas Fight Night card in the last appearance of his contract.Expecting to renegotiate a new UFC deal, Basharat found out weeks later, after initially ignoring online reports, that the promotion decided against renewing his contract.Basharat discusses ‘messy’ UFC exitSpeaking to talkSPORT.com ahead of his return to the cage at PFL Tampa on Saturday, Basharat was honest about the ‘messy situation’ surrounding his release, sharing advice for those who ever find themselves in the same position. “I was absolutely so confused,” Basharat, the older brother of undefeated 16-0 UFC star Farid Basharat, said.“I wasn’t really too p****d, but it was more confusion in the moment.“Because my opponent [for Vegas in February] had missed weight by 5lbs and I was sick all fight week — even prior to fight week I was a little sick.“I didn’t have an opponent. There were some talks behind and everything was so rushed.“People found out before I did. I thought, ‘Ignore [the reports], it’s not true. We have to go speak with them first.’“Then when we did manage to reach out and speak with them, it happened to be like, oh, they didn’t resign.“As I was cutting weight, I was signing stuff. Because remember, you have to sign a bout agreement.Basharat defeated Gianni Vazquez by unanimous decision in his final UFC fight earlier this yearGettyHe has now signed for the PFL and makes his debut in Tampa this SaturdayGetty“You think I have time to read through that? Literally, as they’re doing my medicals, I’m signing a paper. It was a very weird situation.”Basharat explained the ‘weirdest part’ was the process before his release, when he was signing papers while cutting weight without actually knowing what he was agreeing to.But he says that’s common practice in the sport and fighters often find themselves ‘benched’ if they go against the UFC’s plans.“I don’t really have the facts,” he continued.“Maybe we’ll never know, because I don’t really need to explore it as much. But it was very messy, honestly.“With the UFC — I don’t know how other promotions work — the fighters rarely know anything.View Tweet: https://x.com/hashtag/PFLSummerSeries?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“They don’t know much. They say, ‘You’ve got this opponent, will you fight him?’ Yes. ‘Will you fight him?’ No.“What I’m trying to say is it’s either a yes or a no. If it’s a no, you get benched. If it’s a yes, you fight.“There’s really no communication — it’s between the manager and whatnot. But sometimes the manager gets misinformed, so that’s why it was very messy.”Basharat’s advice to fightersSo what would Basharat tell fighters in a similar situation?“The main thing is it’s very hard to plan in this sport,” he concluded.“It’s very hard because your career is in the hands of the promoters. If they don’t want to give you the right fight, you’re not fighting.The entire PFL Tampa card is live on talkSPORT this weekend with Cyborg expected to contest her final MMA fight aged 41Getty / talkSPORT“So my advice would be to just enjoy every second of training and enjoy every moment of fighting as much as you can.“No matter what, if it’s an easy fight, or a hard fight on paper, just give 110 per cent regardless of what you think is going to happen.“Because at the end of the day, your health is on the line. The rest is a little bit of luck, a little bit of charisma, a little bit of the right place at the right time.“Sometimes it’s just right time, right moment. Sometimes [the promoters] could be having a bad day — they’re humans too.“That’s why do not put your career in the hands of other people. Just take full control in that sense of enjoy your training and fight the best you can.“Other things you don’t have much control over. That’s the reality of the sport.”Basharat’s plan is to overcome Russian fighter Movsar Ibragimov this weekend before pushing forward for a bantamweight title shot.He foresees his name as the inaugural 135lbs titleholder when the PFL completes its merger with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) in January, 2027.