The Professional Fighters League pulled the plug on its 2020 regular season and playoffs because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with plans to resume in the spring of 2021.
That’s a big deal for the fight promotion and its athletes spread across six weight classes. The fighters will no longer get to compete in its regular season and playoffs, hoping for a $1 million payday. The promotion will no longer get to show off its high-profile signee, former UFC title contender and Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald. The PFL also loses an opportunity to continue to develop its rising star, 2019 women’s lightweight champion Kayla Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo.
The season shutdown raises lots of questions. How will the PFL persevere through the time out of the cage? Will we see anything at all from the PFL in 2020, and if so, what will it look like? What will it mean to fighters to continue to be paid a monthly stipend even while not competing?
ESPN’s panel of Brett Okamoto, Ariel Helwani, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim address the impact of Monday’s announcement on the PFL, its fighters and the sport of MMA.
How would you tweak the format to improve the PFL for 2021?
Helwani: I think the key is having as many interesting fighters on the roster as possible. They did a good enough job of adding some familiar names this offseason, but I would use this break as an opportunity to add more.
Okamoto: I don’t know that I would tweak the format, honestly. The PFL is trying to be different, with its regular season, playoffs, finals, etc. It’s a lot of fights in a short amount of time — perhaps too many, I could even argue — but the company is confident in its system, and the quality of the fights have not suffered from athletes being overactive, in my opinion. The PFL doesn’t need a tweak in format; it needs brand recognition and continued evolution of its roster, which it was working toward in 2020. That’s what makes the timing of this development so unfortunate for this particular organization.
Raimondi: I’m actually on board with the current format, and I was really looking forward to the addition this season of intriguing names such as Rory MacDonald, Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Justin Willis and Tom Lawlor. The biggest thing the PFL had been lacking had nothing to do with its merit-based system — it was a lack of big names and over-the-top personalities. Those four fit either one or both of those distinctions. In a perfect world, the PFL’s season and playoff system should build stars. But it helps to have names that people are invested in already to give the other members of the roster — pardon the pro wrestling term — the rub.
Wagenheim: I know the PFL doesn’t refer to its format as a tournament, but that’s how I view it. And while I might be in the minority among MMA fans, I like tournaments. They make this sport feel a little more like the sports I’ve been following my whole life. However, I’m not so keen on the fight-twice-in-one-night playoff format. I know that’s like old-school MMA, but it sometimes calls upon athletes to compete on an uneven playing field. One might be run down, coming right off a tough, two-round battle, while the opponent is fresh off a quick finish earlier in the evening.
Even worse is when fighters fall out of playoff bouts at the last minute, leading to bizarre occurrences such as what happened in October. Remember when Chris Curtis lost his welterweight quarterfinal bout, announced his retirement immediately afterward — then was called back to the cage because one of the semifinalists could not fight? That tainted the PFL with a flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants look that was unbecoming.
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Kayla Harrison overcame sexual abuse to become a world champion judoka and now has her sights set on the PFL lightweight title.
How would this impact the development of Kayla Harrison?
Helwani: Not horribly. Obviously, not getting to fight is a bummer, but it’s the training that is most important for her right now. As long as she is fighting at 155 pounds, I don’t see how she improves all that much because the talent pool there is so shallow.
Okamoto: Pretty drastically, actually. Harrison is still at a point in her career in which there is really no substitute for experience in the cage. She needs those reps. She needs to feel fight week and fight night emotions. She needs to be tested in the cage when things matter. So all of that impacts her. And then of course, beyond that, you think about how this might impact her access to coaches and training partners. She needs to learn and drill technique, and that’s presumably more difficult to do under these circumstances. She’ll still be the clear favorite to win a PFL 155-pound season in 2021, but that doesn’t mean this doesn’t impact her growth as a martial artist.
Raimondi: It’s certainly a setback. I’ve heard fighters and coaches say over the years that a fighter has not truly gotten his or her feet wet in MMA until he or she has 10 pro bouts. Harrison is 7-0 right now. She likely would have gotten to 10 career fights had there been a PFL season in 2020. Harrison, with her two judo Olympic gold medals, is determined to be the best combat sports athlete of all time, and this puts at least an obstacle in the way of that happening soon.
The other big question for Harrison: Does she stay with the PFL through 2021? The UFC will surely come calling at some point, and she knows she’ll likely have to compete (and win) in the UFC in order to achieve her goals.
Wagenheim: Harrison has only seven professional fights, and four of them came during the 2019 season and playoffs. A 2020 season could have helped season her as a mixed martial artist. Without fights, she will remain a neophyte, unless she’s getting consistently good work in the gym — tough during a social-distancing lockdown. However, if the PFL uses this time off to find a few 155-pound women who can actually compete with Harrison, it could work out in everyone’s favor.
Harrison weighed in on Monday’s news with a clear declaration that she’s not interested in being inactive for the rest of 2020.
I promise you this, I’m not not fighting this year.
— Kayla Harrison (@KaylaH) April 20, 2020
If there are non-season events in 2020, what’s a creative way to get fans invested?
Helwani: Put the biggest names possible on these cards. Don’t get tied down with the format. Just put together fun fights. Easy. Also, if they still own the World Series of Fighting library, as I believe they do, I would suggest showing old fights featuring the likes of Justin Gaethje, Anthony Johnson and Marlon Moraes. Replaying last season isn’t compelling enough.
Okamoto: If you look at the PFL’s business model, it’s not a “single event” company. It has built itself entirely on the concept of season standings, elimination-style playoffs, etc. Its roster is constructed with that in mind. I’m not saying the PFL doesn’t have marquee names — there are a few — but it has not built its roster with a one-off event in mind. I think if the PFL were to hold an event in 2020, it would want to stay true to its identity somehow and hold some kind of one-night tournament. Do whatever it can to stay true to its brand, which has always been “results speak for themselves,” with athletes who advance due to results, not name recognition.
Raimondi: It wouldn’t take much creativity. Just get your biggest names — the Kayla Harrisons, Rory MacDonalds of the world — and put them in key fights. Maybe book Harrison against former Strikeforce and Invicta champ Sarah Kaufman, which fans were hoping to see last season. The PFL has plenty of talent to stack a few cards this year. Who doesn’t want to see returning champions Ray Cooper or Lance Palmer or Natan Schulte compete? Maybe you can also set up some kind of stakes for the 2021 season, like having the outcomes decide opponents.
Wagenheim: Let the champions defend their belts. That’s what champions do. It’s way more “normal” than just throwing them back into regular-season brackets and making them work their way to a playoff set up to determine who’s top dog. The six 2019 champs already have established that they’re the best in each weight class. Let’s see if they can maintain that status in title fights.
What are the long-term prospects of the PFL?
Helwani: Hard to say. It spends a lot of money while not making a lot of money right now. I hope it succeeds, because the more options for fighters, the better. But I have long been concerned with its spending. Also, I ultimately think its format will be a hindrance in its growth. People care about fights and rivalries, not standings and points.
Okamoto: The same they’ve always been, really. The company has gone out of its way over the past two years to not promote itself as a competitor to the main MMA organization, the UFC. It offers an alternative MMA product, which it hopes offers a distinct appeal to potential consumers. That’s still the case. As I mentioned earlier, however, the timing of this pandemic is especially troubling for the PFL. Over the past two years, the organization has focused on getting the quality of its product right and building its foundation, while not necessarily focusing on the numbers as much.
This year was going to be a significant one, in terms of putting some real weight into those numbers — and seeing how much its efforts over the past two years have paid off. The decision to postpone an entire season essentially stalls it during a time it had hoped to see its most tangible growth.
Raimondi: It’s hard to say what this will all mean to the future of the promotion. By all accounts, the PFL was set to have a big year in 2020. There were some strong, high-profile signings, with MacDonald topping that list. The divisions looked deeper with more familiar names. Most of the best fighters from 2019 and 2018 were returning. It’s a bummer that it all won’t be able to come together due to COVID-19.
Like many businesses, the PFL will surely be hurting. It’s a great gesture to pay fighters a monthly stipend while all this gets sorted out. Hopefully, the PFL can hang on until the pandemic dissipates a bit and hit a home run in 2021.
Wagenheim: If you’re not the UFC, a name brand that to many fans is synonymous with MMA, you’re fighting for whatever scraps are left over — in terms of fan interest and other business opportunities. That goes for even the best of times. And during a pandemic-induced lull in the action, there’s a danger for a second-tier organization like the PFL to fall out of sight, out of mind. However, if the promotion’s commitment to continuing to pay its athletes a monthly stipend generates good will among fighters across the sport, that could bode well for the PFL’s ability to enrich its roster by attracting high-level fighters for seasons to come. This difficult time is going to define the future for all fight promotions. Athletes are not going to forget how they’ve been treated.
With the potential for a yearlong layoff, what could the fallout be for the PFL’s most notable additions, Rory MacDonald and Brendan Loughnane?
Helwani: Time off will serve MacDonald well, in my opinion. There were still some questions as to how much fire he had left, so perhaps this helps in that regard. Loughnane is in a different spot, because he hasn’t made the kind of money MacDonald has throughout his career, and he seemed like he was just chomping at the bit for his shot at a million bucks. This will no doubt sting for him a lot more.
Okamoto: The PFL is getting a lot of credit for its decision to offer its roster a monthly stipend during this — as it should. But at the same time, until we know the full details of that stipend, it’s hard to predict how it will truly impact the roster. First of all, fighters want to fight. The idea of taking an entire year off will not be a welcome one to the majority of them. You also have to think about what compelled these athletes to sign with the PFL in the first place; the possibility of a $1 million check for winning the finals was likely factored in that decision.
How will the athletes accept that it is no longer a possibility? MacDonald and Loughnane are interesting case studies to bring up, but in reality, they’re all interesting. It impacts everyone differently. How much of MacDonald’s potential earning power is now gone? Would he, as a bigger name, be better off right now in another promotion that might get back to business quicker? There are a lot of unanswered questions right now for the PFL roster, even after this definitive news of the season’s postponement.
Raimondi: Loughnane was such a clever signing by the PFL off his very memorable performance on Dana White’s Contender Series last summer. The promotion made an investment and secured Loughnane some non-season fights, and the return was supposed to come with the Brit in the featherweight season this year. MacDonald, meanwhile, is the biggest signing in PFL history, a former UFC title contender and former Bellator champion.
Having time off isn’t such a bad thing for MacDonald. He is only 30 years old, though he has been in so many bloody, brutal wars in MMA. MacDonald started his pro career at 16 years old, so a break might be a positive.
For Loughnane, as time passes, his stock drops, unfortunately. MMA fans have a short memory. He’ll have a chance to get them to remember, but in how long? It’s hard to say.
Wagenheim: Fighters at every level — and in every promotion — are being affected by this pause in the action, and the fight organizations can do only so much to bolster them. The athletes themselves are going to have to be determined and creative in finding ways to stay sharp, and they’re going to have to have management that looks out for their interests. MacDonald and Loughnane might get more attention from the PFL than the rank and file, but even they face challenges. It all adds up to a career sustainability test. How equipped is each fighter to control those things that he or she can control?