PFL Drops Bellator, Launches $20 Million Tournament

The Professional Fighters League announced a 2025 world tournament Wednesday, paying out a $20 million purse to eight weight classes over a five-month event. Every weight class winner will receive a $500,000 bonus. 

The tournament is the latest move from the PFL, which had the Battle of the Giants fight in Saudi Arabia in October. The fight marked the return of former UFC star Francis Ngannou. 

The single-elimination tournaments will feature brackets at heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight, and women’s flyweight. The five-month tournament is shortened from eight months; it formerly ran through November. PFL CEO Peter Murray told Front Office Sports that the format changes were an attempt to connect with fans.

“We’re really compressing the window and believe it’ll drive even more increased audience and engagement among fans,” Murray says. “It’s now 10 events over five months and the championship in August is three events. Historically, that was one event, six title fights in one night, and now it’s championship month.”

It’s also the second year PFL will have Bellator under its umbrella since buying the fighting league in late 2023. Murray said PFL acquired the mixed martial arts league for its fighting roster and used the Bellator name for certain events in 2024, but that won’t be the case for 2025. 

“The brand Bellator will actually go away this year,” Murray says. “So that’s new. And we’re leading with ‘Professional Fighters League’ and the PFL brand. But when I say go away, it will go away tied to our live events, the Bellator brand will live on the legacy, of that brand, of that property. The historically great fights, fighters, and champions will continue to live. We will be activating our archive and there may be a future specialty, be it Bellator special events, but for 2025, it’s all about the PFL brand.” 

The PFL World Tournament will start in April with the semifinals set for June and the finals in August. Every fight will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN+, with brackets released in February.