
With the purchase of Bellator, PFL also revealed a handful of plans it wants to introduce to continuously charm MMA fans. In his recent interview at the PFL Championships post-fight press conference, PFL founder Donn Davis shared the company’s plans for its superfight series alongside its intent to continue the Bellator v. RIZIN series. More importantly, the executive revealed what they plan for Bellator’s bantamweight and middleweight champs who don’t have their counterparts at PFL.
PFL’s plan for its bantamweight and middleweight divisions is one of the main concerns the company has been facing. With a goal to push its own champs to face those of Bellator’s, it means PFL’s lack of the said two divisions makes it a problem. Nonetheless, the company assured fans it would build rosters for those weight classes and open them by 2025.
“So those are two divisions which may be No. 1 in the world. We didn’t want to come out with those divisions this year because that wouldn’t serve those guys. We’re going to come out with those divisions probably in 2025. So we need a full year to build divisions strong enough that they would make sense in a league season.”
According to Davis, to ensure that Bellator fighters would continue being active, it will also involve those fighters who still don’t have their respective PFL counterparts in its superfight series. The executive shared plans to bring the series to different locations, allowing the company to reach more audiences globally.
“What makes sense this year? Put on fantastic fights in these eight major events that we’ve talked about,” Davis said. “Think of the eight events as huge events on their own. When you see UFC, we all see what are the eight or 10 best events they have of their 30. We want to make these events almost that big. Two championship belts on the line for all co-mains for those. Put them in the great cities of the world, at least four in Europe, a couple in the mid-East, a couple in the Far East, maybe one in Latin America. Have each of those be tentpole events and have those be worth of a Johnny, a Patchy, the people that aren’t in the season this year, against the best opponents that would make sense.
“Six of the eight events will be outside the US,” Davis said. “Our focus will be on giving international fans more top-shelf product than they’ve been able to get before. Almost all of the league seasons of PFL is in the US So we see this as a great compliment to serving global fans.”
Ultimately, Davis said that the company contacted RIZIN to discuss the possible continuation of the Bellator v. RIZIN series. As shared by the executive, the company is considering setting it in the third or fourth quarter of 2024. One of the current Bellator fighters benefiting from this collaboration is Juan Archuleta, who’s still signed under Bellator but taking fights from RIZIN.
“I reached out to RIZIN two weeks ago and I let them know we’d be glad to talk to them, and that we had one open spot on 2024 that we hadn’t even booked the event yet, and if they’d like to talk to us about that, we’d be open to doing that,” Davis said.