The Professional Fighters League is getting ready to swing back into action for their 2021 season, which begins in April.

With this upcoming third season, the PFL hopes to continue to build on the momentum that they’re enjoying right now. It’s the same momentum that has pushed them to the top of the mixed martial arts landscape, second only to the industry-leading Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC.

The UFC has been around for nearly three decades, and they’ve worked hard to get to where they are today. The PFL on the other hand, has been around for just a little over three years, and already they have established themselves as the number two player in the aggressive MMA industry. 

A lot of the PFL’s success has to do with the people leading the charge, namely PFL CEO Peter Murray. Murray’s accomplishments speak for themselves. He helped Under Armour sign some of the biggest names in the sports world, and now, he’s doing the same with the PFL.
For Murray, it’s about giving fight fans even more content to consume.

“MMA is the growth sport of this decade and the fastest-growing sport in the world. We saw there was room for more than one leader and clearly, MMA fans are seeking to consume more premium, live and quality MMA events, fights and content,” Murray said in an interview with Uproxx Sports.

But while giving more fans content to consume is a step in the right direction, making sure the content stands out is an even bigger step, and that’s what the PFL has managed to do with their unique league format.

Instead of adopting the age-old promotion-style presentation, the PFL went with a tournament-style format that’s more commonly seen in major sports such as soccer, football, baseball, and basketball. Instead of being pushed for their hype or their popularity, fighters go further in the season based on their performances. They go through a regular season, a playoffs, and a finals. At the end, the last man or woman standing is crowned as the PFL World Champion for that respective weight division, and is also awarded a cool 1 million dollar prize.

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“It’s a great product, quite simply. We’re the only organization in the world that presents MMA in this fashion and it speaks to not only the combat and MMA fans, but fans of other sports as well,” Murray stated. “It’s programmatic, with a beginning, middle and end, and a spectacle that includes belts and major money on the line. If you combine our sports season format with our cutting-edge presentation, integrating real-time fighter data and fight analytics, it really is MMA 2.0. It’s next-gen.”

Having a roster of world class fighters from all over the world to compete in a one-of-a-kind format also helps the PFL a lot.

The PFL currently has six weight divisions, featuring some of the best fighters in the world, and the 2021 season will feature a number of big-name additions, including former world champions such as Rory MacDonald, Anthony Pettis, and Fabricio Werdum.

The biggest signing for the 2021 season however, is undoubtedly three-time women’s boxing champion Claressa Shields, who is slated to make her mixed martial arts debut with the PFL this year. While she won’t be joining the million dollar tournament just yet, she will be competing in special attraction bouts to get her primed and ready for the 2022 season.

Apart from the format and the fighters, the PFL also has a massive worldwide distribution. The PFL can currently be seen in the US on ESPN, and 160 more countries all over the world via various platforms and sports networks. This makes the PFL definitely one of the biggest global platforms for mixed martial arts.

The PFL’s upcoming 2021 season is already shaping up to be its biggest yet, and if they can continue to innovate and grow, expect the fastest growing sports league in the world to be the biggest one in no time.