Back in July, former Turner Executive John Martin was named CEO of PFL by Donn Davis and I was really encouraged by the hire. It felt like the promotion really lacked in terms of direction and my hope was that we’d see someone take the reigns and really start operating with common sense.
About a month ago, I wrote about how the PFL’s future looks so much brighter under Martin’s leadership given some comments that he was making. Martin has been clear about simplification and has openly talked about the confusion that the current model created for fight fans.
Martin was on Ariel Helwani’s show today and he continued talking about the changes that are coming to the promotion next year. One of the biggest changes that they are doing is getting rid of any and all tournament formats for their US audience.
They will still have some for the international roster, but in terms of the US roster, they will move away from that format. I’ve never been a big fan of the season format and I’m not a big fan of tournaments either. Martin talked about the concept and acknowledged that it’s a way to differentiate from the UFC, but at the end of the day, fight fans are simple in what they want.
They simply want the best to fight the best and that’s what the PFL aims to do in 2026. Martin said that they are looking to have ten US events next year which is also encouraging. With their current format, they’d flood the airwaves at certain points throughout the year before going completely dormant. That will no longer be the case.
In Martin’s interview today, he also talked about moving away from ramp entrances and having fighters walk through the crowd. He also talked about moving away from standard fighter uniforms and going back to letting fighters have a say in what they wear when they fight.
The more I hear from John Martin, the more I get excited about PFL’s future. I really thought the promotion would fold in the next couple of years over the summer. They completely botched the Bellator acquisition and honestly, it looked like nobody knew what they were doing at the top. Now, they have an extremely competent leader who is running things the way they should in terms of fight promotion. Really encourage everyone to listen to his interview below.
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