PFL Unveils 2025 World Tournament Featuring Single-Elimination Fights & New Divisions
The PFL has officially unveiled the plans for its 2025 World Tournament that will feature a few key changes and also introduce two new weight classes to the promotion.
PFL Announces 2025 World Tournament Format
Following a few days of rumors regarding the PFL’s plans for 2025 and the future of Bellator MMA, yesterday PFL Chairman Donn Davis officially announced that 2024 was the final year of Bellator-branded events and that the promotion’s roster would be full combined with the PFL’s going forward.
Bellator Star Patricio Pitbull Calls Out Former UFC Champ Following PFL Release
Davis also announced that longtime Bellator star and reigning Featherweight Champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire had been granted a release from his contract as requested, and today a press release officially unveiled the plans for the 2025 PFL World Tournament that will feature 64 fighters competing across eight weight classes.
In addition to last year's PFL weight classes (women’s flyweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, light heavyweight, heavyweight) 2025 will feature a PFL middleweight tournament for the first time since 2018 as well as a newly-introduced bantamweight tournament.
Aside from adding two divisions, the biggest changes to the 2025 tournament are that the PFL Regular Season has been replace by single-elimination fights, and as Al Zullino reported last week the prize for winning each tournament will be $500,000.
The full addition of the Bellator roster to the PFL’s current stable of fighters gives the promotion plenty of options to fill out the tournament brackets, and the press release notes that the 64 fighters competing will be announced sometime in February.
Vadim Nemkov Added to Road to Dubai Champions Series, Nathan Kelly Gets New Opponent
Opening round matchups will take place at events over the course of April before the semifinal fights on June 12, 20, and 27, and fans can look forward to seeing the championship matchups for all eight weight classes across three PFL events in August.
More PFL & MMA News
• Arman Tsarukyan’s Insane UFC 311 Physique Fine-Tuned by Minds behind ‘Muscle Lab'
• ‘A Slave to Him,’ UFC Vet Diego Sanchez Relives Guru Saga on ‘Dark Side of the Cage'
• Dana White Drops New Update on Conor McGregor’s UFC Return, Dispels Logan Paul Rumors
• BKFC President Talks Eddie Alvarez vs. Jeremy Stephens, Conor McGregor Ringside
Stick with MMA Knockout for more daily coverage of the UFC, MMA, and Boxing.