The Professional Fighters’ League returned after a year absence due to the pandemic for its third season. The company streamed on ESPN+ and ESPN2 for most of its events.
It signed Claressa Shields who fought in two MMA fights. While the signing brought in some traffic, it was clear that Shields was a novice with anything except boxing. She won her first fight and lost her second.
The tournament style of the PFL led to some unfortunate talent not making the cut. First, Anthony “Showtime” Pettis lost to Clay Collard in his debut. Next, he lost to eventual lightweight division winner Raush Manfio. In addition, Fabricio Werdum’s debut with the company was stymied by a controversial TKO to Renan Ferreira. It was later overturned and ruled a no-contest as it was determined that Ferreira tapped out to a triangle choke prior to the TKO. But, Werdum’s next fight was cancelled due to an injury and he did not fight again in the PFL in season 3.
Perhaps the company’s rising star is Ray Cooper III as he avenged a season 1 loss to Magomed Magomedkerimov to win the welterweight champion. Of course, the biggest star remains to be Kayla Harrison who won her third Women’s Lightweight tournament. As it appears that she is a free agent at the end of this year and could be back or go elsewhere.
In February 2021, PFL announced a $65 million dollar financing round which expanded the total funding to $175 million. The funding was led by Ares Capital, Elysian Park Ventures, and Knighthead Capital.
The ratings were not the best this year for the PFL as it appeared on ESPN2 most of the time. Whether or not it returns to ESPN will be a major question going into season 4. It made some moves with respect to making digital currency available for its fans. As of December 29th, the PFL Fan Token is down 1.58%.
In addition, it announced that Marshawn Lynch and Wiz Khalifa were PFL investors. Also, DraftKings became the first official sportsbook and daily fantasy sports operator for the promotion.
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