The
Professional Fighters League listened to the mixed martial
artists who comprise its roster, to the fans and to the critics.
One year after their purchase of Bellator
MMA, the PFL decision makers moved to abandon their season and
points-style format in favor of a single-elimination World
Tournament in 2025.
While it was easy to bring over Bellator fans and some of the
company’s well-known veteran fighters, the PFL gave rise to its own
stars in 2024, most notably Dakota
Ditcheva. The
American Top Team standout proved she was the best women’s
flyweight in the promotion by cruising to the 125-pound
championship in convincing fashion. The PFL leaned into Ditcheva
and other young talents, including Ireland’s Paul
Hughes, who shined in a closely contested defeat to Bellator
lightweight champion Usman
Nurmagomedov in January.
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By altering its format, moving on from some of the biggest names on
the integrated roster and building toward the World Tournament, the
PFL seems ready, willing and able to embrace the future-is-now
approach. PFL CEO Peter Murray likes the idea of highlighting the
next wave of MMA talent.
“What we get excited about at the PFL is identifying and developing
the next generation of great fighters that come from different
parts of the world and then giving them a pathway to becoming
great, as well as [becoming] potential champions—regionally and
globally,” Murray told Sherdog.com. “That’s our mission. We’re not
about yesterday. We’re about tomorrow.”
Murray pointed to the work done by Ditcheva as she advanced from
PFL Europe to the global roster and then emerged as a star. He
would like nothing more than for other up-and-coming fighters to
follow her lead. Ditcheva will be featured on the PFL Champions
Series in 2025.
“Dakota is a great example of [our approach],” Murray said. “She
worked through our system out of Manchester, [England], came to PFL
Europe, did the business, became champion [and] then punched her
ticket to PFL global and did the business. She’s a star. She’s
going to be a superstar. Now, she’s going to be elevated to the
Champions Series platform. That’s what our focus is: to advance and
grow the sport around the world.”
The PFL held its first event of 2025 on Jan. 25. It was headlined
by the memorable title fight between Nurmagomedov and Hughes in the
United Arab Emirates.
“Change is good,” Murray said. “Mentioning Hughes and Usman, I
think it’s a top three event, if not the best event, the PFL has
ever staged since launching the format in 2018. I think it really
illustrates the growth in MMA and the interest in MMA all over the
world, including the UAE. We’re really proud that last year we were
the first organization to open up Saudi Arabia to MMA, and a year
later, we opened up Dubai to the first-ever major MMA event.”
Murray takes particular pride in the international leagues the PFL
has built, starting with PFL Europe and progressing to PFL Middle
East and North Africa. PFL Africa launches later this year. Those
three territories could be joined by another branch in the
not-too-distant future.
“International leagues—that is the future of the sport. Those
athletes,” Murray said. “Coming up through our system, you have PFL
Europe going into the third year, PFL MENA is going into their
second year and we will launch PFL Africa this year. We’ve been
working on that for years. Francis
Ngannou is the chairman [of PFL Africa]. That roster is set.
What I can tell you: I’m excited about an upcoming announcement
related to Australia and the Pacific region.”