The Professional Fighters League dropped major news on January 15.
In short, Bellator is dead. The PFL is shifting from a season format that pays $1 million to a champion of six weight classes each year to an annual tournament that pays $500,000 to champions from eight weight classes.
Let’s take a closer look at all of the details.
PFL Moves Away From the Bellator Brand
The PFL issued a statement confirming the massive reduction in the usage and references to the Bellator brand.
I spoke with PFL CEO Peter Murray on Tuesday and he added clarification to the organization’s major announcement.
“We acquired Bellator last year, really proud to have acquired the brand and the business,” Murray said in an exclusive interview with me on January 14. “The driving force behind that was to acquire the fighters and to give them opportunities. We went to work last year to ensure those fighters fought and were active. We had to move some things around, but our focus was to up-level the quality of the roster. And we achieved that with the acquisition. Now, the energy and the vision is around the PFL vision. For Bellator, we have tremendous respect and value the legacy of all those great fighters who fought under Bellator. All those great moments and champions, and that’ll live on in our archives.”
PFL Moves to the New World Tournament
The PFL also confirmed specifics around changes made to its overall competitive structure, which includes the elimination of its season format. The PFL will keep official division titles, but they are replacing the season format with the annual World Tournament.
Rather than paying the winners $1 million for being crowned the champion at the end of a season, the winners of the eight divisional tournaments will win $500,000. The tournaments will have traditional seeding with No. 1 through No. 8. The roster and seedings will be announced in February. According to Murray, the field will be made up of former Bellator and PFL fighters. Fighters who lose in the tournament will have other opportunities to fight on cards outside of the World Tournament.
Mainstays like Impa Kasanganay have already signed up and others such as Josh Silveira and Gabriel Braga can be seen in the trailer for the tournament.
Here is a look at the bracket system, without the fighters.
At the tournament events, which will begin in April and conclude in August, the shows will also include what Murray described as “discovery” bouts for up-and-coming fighters. There will also be other showcase fights at those events. The winners of the tournaments will be separate from the Champions Series, which focuses on a more lineal champion concept. However, the tournament winners can challenge for lineal championships down the road.
The upcoming PFL event headlined by Usman Nurmagomedov vs. Paul Hughes is a part of the Champions Series. Nurmagomedov was the reigning Bellator champion, but that title will now become the PFL Lightweight Championship.
What About the Bellator Champions and SuperFights?
I asked Murray if the remaining Bellator champions were going to be a part of the PFL’s roster. With the exception of Patricio Pitbull the Bellator Featherweight champion, who was granted his release on Tuesday, Murray said, “Absolutely, they’re a part of the PFL.”
PFL’s regional organizations like PFL MENA will continue, and the fighters who emerge from there will have opportunities to fight on other events.
Last, but not least, the SuperFights division, which is where Francis Ngannou and Jake Paul will fight when they’re appearing at PFL events remains active. It’s going to be an interesting year in MMA with PFL’s restructures, whatever becomes of the Global Fight League and of course, the UFC.
