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A new professional fencing league debuts Saturday in Los Angeles with the goal of taking the sport to new heights.
The World Fencing League (WFL), co-founded by American-British Olympic bronze medalist Miles Chamley-Watson and Singaporean Olympic swimmer Zhen Ren Teo, aims to broaden the audience of fencing, which is widely considered an upper-class sport with massive entry barriers.
“Our goal is to take fencing from niche to mainstream,” Chamley-Watson told Front Office Sports. “We have the fencing audience, which is our core audience, we love them. But the key to grow a sport is we need other audiences, other walks of life to see fencing in a new light that we have created.”
The WFL’s debut event consists of 12 Olympic-level fencers on both the men’s and women’s side, competing against each other on two six-person teams, for a shared $100,000 prize. Fencers will compete head-to-head for one point, and the team with the most points is the winner.
This format is a change from traditional fencing competitions like the Olympics and the World Championships, where the team battle is split by category (Foil, Sabre, Épée) and formatted in a single-elimination bracket.
The league will also debut a new blade-tracking technology that will be visible on streams and on a large screen at The Shrine, the event’s competition venue.
Reviving Professional Fencing
The idea of a professional fencing league was in the back of Chamley-Watson’s mind as early as 2024, when he shared his vision with his friend and Premier Lacrosse League founder Paul Rabil at New York’s Soho House. But the WFL didn’t come to fruition until Chamley-Watson met Ren in March 2025, and they got to work that following August.
Ren is a director at Chiron Sports Group, the Swiss private equity firm incubating the WFL. Chiron is also behind Legacy 25, a sports investment fund backed by former NFL players like Rob Gronkowski and Brian Hoyer looking to put money into college sports.
WFL already has deals lined up with sponsors and streamers—now it just needs eyeballs.
The league has sponsorships from Mercedes-Benz USA, Nike, and Don Julio tequila, among others. Ren tells FOS the WFL targeted high-end brands given fencing’s reputation as a “luxury sport,” but the league wants to be open to all types of sponsors.
The WFL will stream globally on DAZN and CNBC, and in the U.S. and Canada on beIn Sports and TrillerTV. It has also partnered with streamers and broadcasters across Asia, Europe and North Africa.
Chamley-Watson says the WFL pitched partners on a chance to be a trailblazer. The league also has a strategic partnership with USA Fencing, which entails cross-promotion and initiatives to grow the sport at a collegiate and high school level.
“We are telling them that they have the ability to change the sport for the future,” Chamley-Watson said. “How often can you say that?”
This is hardly the first attempt at professionalizing fencing. Most notably, the now-defunct Professional Fencing League undertook it in 1997 and a separate league with the same name tried in 2016. Neither league received significant investment or sponsorships.
Chamley-Watson, who says he has never heard of either Professional Fencing League, believes the WFL’s “clear vision” is what separates it from past attempts. A core part of that vision is making the sport understandable to the casual fan.
New Technology
The WFL’s biggest innovation involves using 24 cameras to capture blade motion-tracking at various angles.
The tech comes from Dentsu Labs in Japan and aims to alleviate the difficulties of watching and scoring fencing—specifically, losing sight of where the sword tip touches a fencer’s body.
The league’s debut on Saturday costs $65 per person to attend, including access to all the fencing bouts, general admission seating, and fan activations including an opportunity to try on fencing equipment.
Chamley-Watson himself will be among the fencers competing, going against foil World No. 1 Ryan Choi of Hong Kong. American Lee Keifer, the women’s individual foil champion from the last two Olympic games, will also compete.
The WFL founder’s hopes for the debut are high. “It’s good to win Olympic medals, cool to win World Championships,” he said. “But to change a sport for the future is bigger than any medal that I or anybody could ever win.”
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