When the PFL makes its 2025 debut April 3 in Orlando, Florida, it might look like a brand-new fight organization. There are many changes from how the promotion has operated over the previous six seasons -- new fighters, new venues and, most important, an entirely new format.
The PFL announced its opening round of bouts Tuesday night -- 40 fights over four weekly cards. Heading into that first evening of fights, which will feature welterweights and featherweights, here is what we know about the new PFL format.
How is the PFL's format different from in the past?
The previous six seasons operated like typical sports seasons, with 10 fighters competing in two regular-season bouts apiece and the four who earned the most points from those fights moving on to playoffs, which consisted of semifinals and a final. The winner in each weight class would earn a $1 million prize.
The PFL has replaced that format with a tournament, in which eight fighters in each weight class are placed in quarterfinal brackets. The four survivors of those fights in April and early May compete in June semifinals, and the winners of those matchups fight it out in the finals in August for a $500,000 prize in each division.
So, there are now eight fighters in each weight class?
It's actually 10, if you count the two alternates in each division. While they will not be part of the tournament initially, the alternates will compete in undercard fights until they're called upon to fill out a bracket. That would happen whenever a tournament fighter is unable to compete, because of injury or some other reason.
In previous PFL seasons, there's always been a call for replacement fighters, and they would seemingly appear out of nowhere in midseason. This year the PFL is announcing the names of the potential replacements ahead of time.
Are there still six weight classes, as in the past?
No, there are now eight. The PFL has added middleweight and men's bantamweight to its existing divisions of heavyweight, light heavyweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and women's flyweight.
The PFL did have a middleweight division for its inaugural season in 2018 but replaced it with women's lightweight the next season to make room for star signee Kayla Harrison. The PFL has since changed its women's division to flyweight.
As for the addition of bantamweight, that made sense considering that the PFL's 2023 purchase of Bellator MMA brought into the company one of the best 135-pounders in the world, Patchy Mix. However, Mix is not part of the tournament bracket.
Are any other top PFL fighters missing from the brackets?
Yes, several, beginning with the biggest star from last season, undefeated 2024 women's flyweight champion Dakota Ditcheva. Also not competing in the tournament are last season's PFL champs in four of the five other weight classes. Only lightweight Gadzhi Rabadanov is back to defend his title.
The PFL has not yet announced its plans for Ditcheva or other prominent fighters not in the tournament, including Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen and light heavyweight titlist Corey Anderson. Are they all being held back to join Francis Ngannou on a pay-per-view event at some point?
Now that we know who'll be missing, who will be fighting in the PFL tournament?
Several former PFL champions and playoff runners-up are in the brackets. Among them is Impa Kasanganay, champion of the light heavyweight season in 2023 and runner-up last season. For 2025, he is moving down 20 pounds to middleweight, the division where he started his pro career.
There also are several former Bellator champions in the tournament -- in fact, two of them, welterweights Jason Jackson and Andrey Koreshkov, will meet in the main event of the opening card April 3.
For a full rundown of the fight lineups for the first round of events, go to Fightcenter.
Beyond the tournament format, what is the biggest change for this PFL season?
There's a significant rule change: Elbows will be allowed. In previous seasons, they were banned, and the PFL's explanation was that the season required fighters to compete as many as four times in seven months, which would not be possible if fighters suffered a bad cut from elbows. Now elbows are allowed, despite the fact that the 2025 tournament calls on fighters to compete as many as three times within five months -- still leaving not much time for a bad elbow-induced cut to heal. We'll see how that goes.
What else is different about the 2025 season?
Whereas in past seasons the PFL fights moved from site to site each week, this year all four fight cards in the opening round will be at Universal Studios in Orlando.
Will the semifinals and finals also be in Orlando?
No, the semifinals will be spread across three cards in different venues: June 12 at Nashville Municipal Auditorium, June 20 at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas, and June 27 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The eight weight division finals will be contested on three August fight cards at sites not yet announced.