How much longer does the PFL have?????

[Lionheart7167]

It's clearly been a shit year for the PFL.

With all of the bad publicity coming from their Bellator merger, the extremely poor PPV sales of the Ngannou fight, lack of overall interest in the tournaments these days, failure to build stars, and (rumored) collapse of their relationships with sponsors, broadcast partners, etc. , how much longer do you anticipate they'll survive???

If you've been around MMA long enough the writing appears to be on the wall. Their trajectory feels oddly familiar to that of an EliteXC, or a IFL, to be honest.

My guess is they'll close shop late '25/early 26.

Any predictions???

 

[Bobby Boulders]

It seems they do much better in Europe than elsewhere, have stars from the region people there care about and want to see. But my understanding is that PFL Europe is a separate entity from PFL, so I could see regular PFL fold and PFL Europe change its name. But I also barely keep up with PFL bc I'm just uninterested, for the most part.

Plus, Donn Davis is a douchbag and makes me actively not want to care about PFL.

 

[Ara tech]

PFL has the P4P best welterweight in the world, Shamil Musaev. But is he known worldwide, no.

The UFC has a monopoly of attention, 80% of the fans are only focused on the UFC. Bellator was always been awful at promoting, and months or years later you found out that huge fights happened but no-one was aware of them.

The first step is to have worldclass fighers like Shamil, the second step would be to market them to the world. And they are awful at that. They are probably going to grow a bit more, right now outside the UFC only ACA has a guaranted future 100%.

All the rivals, PFL, One are shady enough to be tied to money laudering operations. But it is better not to talk about these things..

 

[CC27]

They have years left in them, look how long One has been able to go losing money every year. While Saudi is footing the bill and they get some sort of ok new tv deal in 26 either with ESPN losing UFC and keeping PFL or someone else keeping them that will keep the lights on for a while.

But they'd be smart to switch things up cause handing out 6 mill to nobodies every year in front of no crowds isnt good business.

Like said above they have Doumbe and Dakota and Hughes and took over for Bellator in Europe so focusing over there is the smart move. Seeing if they can do Africa, continue on Mena, maybe they can make that work but US is never gonna be a thing for them.

They def need to get rid of Davis as the front man, get someone who actually watches mma to be your spokesman.

 

[wwkirk]

They MUST be doing well. How could a MMA organization purchase another prominent MMA company if they weren't doing well?

 

[David Street]

PFL can hang on for years, no chance of them becoming a true number 2 yet unless they make major changes. They have many good fighters as did Bellator but we gave Bellator more respect as a number 2 then PFL.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Indefinitely. They're expanding. I think their Europe and Saudi leagues are probably going to do good. Bellator will be turned into....something.

 

[Bubzeh]

I'm hoping they'll be fine.... But some of the signs are worrying (lack of events!!!)

We need healthy competition in MMA so I'm a little baffled at everyone rooting for their downfall tbh.

 

[skylolow]

Should be interesting to see what kind of media deal they get in the US for 2025. My understanding the current media deal is up.

I'd love to know what an ESPN is actually paying PFL for a year. That is the real key in this or it just a complete money suck living on investor money or actually maybe breaking even or even crazier making some coin. I would think they are paying them around 10M to 15M a year maybe. I think for there model to be sustainable they need about 30-40M a year worldwide in revenue and probably closer to 50M to make real money. I guess will see if them taking in Bellator's roster helps them get a better US media deal.

 

[Mick Dojang]

I have never heard of someone watching their events in real life

I can only assume Saudi money is propping them up until they make a profit. The question is how long until that money tap gets turned off.

Also if they want to buy something I bet ONE is going cheap these days. Feed Reug Reug to Francis and you might get some views

 

[David R]

PFL will keep getting investors. ONE I feel investors are starting to give up on.

Think PFL should be taken away from Donn and someone put in charge with a clear simple vision.

As it is pfl can die and I wouldn't care sad to say.

 

[TheBrownRanger]

The safe, boring answer is: As long as the Saudis keep funding them.