As the
Professional Fighters League prepares for the
PFL 2024 Season Championships, there will be six $1 million
award winners, several showcase bouts, and for the first time ever,
PFL MENA will crown four champions.
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It’ll be a night to remember under a new legacy for the
Professional Fighters League, with talent at each level. The event
will also show how the PFL is looking to keep develop its regional
leagues for integration in the global season.
One of those central to the plan is Dan Hardy,
color commentator, host and head of fighter operations for PFL
Europe. Ahead of the special and unique night for the PFL, Hardy
talked with Sherdog.com about what to expect, how the first year
with the Bellator roster has gone, and what to look forward to
moving forward.
Winding down on their 2024 PFL season, Hardy acknowledges that not
everything was perfect in the first year after acquiring the
Bellator roster, but room for improvement is not a bad thing.
“No promotion is an overnight success. Obviously the UFC has been
the market leader for many years, but it wasn’t like they didn’t
have turbulent times in the past; it wasn’t like they weren’t
struggling at times. The difference was there were not a lot of
people watching at that time, so a lot was easy to forgive. With
the PFL we’re growing in an industry that is already defined by
what the UFC is doing.”
Seeing the evening as a showcase of all that they are trying to do
as a company, from the regional to the global reach and
opportunity, Hardy believes the PFL Championships will be a
spectacle that shows exactly what path the PFL is trying to set for
fighters, to find their footing through their respective regional
leagues, and then grow and advance to the global roster.
There is no better example for what the PFL is trying to do than
Dakota
Ditcheva. The 2023 PFL Europe champion earned her spot on the
PFL Global roster in 2024, and she is the ultimate blueprint for
fighter and promotional success.
“It really is [a showcase]. Dakota is different from the rest of
them; she’s won the Europe title, won $100,000 and then she stepped
over to the global roster, and she’s had tremendous success. She’s
put herself in position to win $1 million and a world title, that
really is proof of the PFL format. Dakota has gone through two
cycles of it, showing that you can win a regional title, a world
title, and pick up a bunch of cash at the same time.”
It will be a feast of fights, which is highlighted by a total of 10
athletes getting crowned champions, and some of the best talent in
the world being featured on early prelim action.
“We’re going to shift through gears as the day goes on, starting
off with some really high-level Bellator fights on the prelims.
Then we move to the PFL MENA Championships, the regional league,
the first time we’re going to be crowning champions there. That’s
going to show what we’re doing at the regional level. Then
obviously, we go to the Global championship where you got six
fighters all fighting for $1 million and a world title, which we
may have the next contender for Francis
Ngannou. We’ll have Dakota, Brendan
Loughnane looking to win again, Brent
Primus trying to win at 40-years old, there’s a lot of
different things going on. You don’t want to miss any of these
fights.”
For the first time in PFL history, there will be elbows allowed in
the PFL SmartCage, answering a call from fans and fighters alike
that were missing such a crucial weapon in the action. On Nov. 29,
the PFL will not just crown 10 champions, they will be displaying
all that they look to do not just presently, but in the immediate
future.
They hear the fans, they hear the fighters, and while there are
still places where they’d love to improve, a special night of
fights is surely going to be quite the close for its 2024 season.