In January, the Professional Fighters’ League announced that it the Bellator brand would be no more. The company was purchased in November 2023 and with a promise to implement the Bellator roster into the PFL, nothing big has happened in 2025.
The PFL announced a tournament for the year offering $500K. However, PFL events were overshadowed by the UFC and the lack of marketing and a dedicated platform to show the events impacted viewership.
Did anyone know Thad Jean won the welterweight division? The 11-0 fighter is on the rise but since a sporadic number of events are solely on the ESPN+ platform, it’s hard to follow.
Perhaps the company’s number 1 draw, Dakota Ditcheva, pleaded with the promotion to get her a fight in April. The 2024 $1M winner of the women’s Flyweight division had nothing on her schedule. At a time when a promotion would have taken advantage of her momentum, Ditcheva had no fights lined up. Ditcheva finally fought this July, a unanimous decision victory over Sumiko Inaba. The fight was the first event in Cape Town, South Africa. Ditcheva was set to fight again on February 7th against Denise Kielholz in Dubai but recently announced that she is injured and will not be able to fight.
In addition, Francis Ngannou did not fight this year. His one and only fight in the PFL was a KO in October 2024 against Renan Ferreira. Ngannou was inactive in 2025 and announced in an interview with Ariel Helwani that his contract with the PFL is ending in 2026 in time for a potential showdown with Jon Jones. at the mythical White House event. One might infer that he went on Helwani’s program to facilitate some action for a fight (PFL or UFC). The PFL noted that they have plans for Ngannou in 2026, but does Francis know or even want to stay with the PFL.
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