PFL boss Donn Davis teases further changes to season format after announcing major rule change

PFL boss Donn Davis is planning to make even more adjustments to streamline this year’s PFL Global Season.

The promotion’s flagship annual tournament is the four-fight league season, which historically runs from April to November. In the past few years, it has been a two-fight ‘regular season’ resembling a group stage in soccer in April and June, before playoffs in August and a championship final in November.

They also run regional tournaments in Europe and the Middle East, with further expansion planned into Africa this year. And in an exclusive chat with Bloody Elbow, Davis has confirmed that there will be a new look to the PFL season this year.

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However, the season format has proven controversial over the years, with some viewers claiming that it drags on, while simultaneously forcing fighters into a gruelling schedule. But Davis plans to make changes, telling Bloody Elbow: “We’ll be announcing the schedule about mid-January.

“It always starts beginning of April, so it’ll start again in the beginning of April. But we’re working on some new innovations for fans this year and we said, new year, new adjustments, and there’ll be some new adjustments to the season this year.

Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images“So you’ll hear about it in mid-April, and I think people are going to like it. Some of the feedback we got, to give you a little bit of preview, is that people wish the season was a little shorter. The season is eight months, and there were four fights in 8 months.

“That was necessitated because of all the 45 day layoffs between the fights. So we’ve worked on how can we make this season a little bit more condensed for fans.

“That’s all I’ll say now until we’re able to release this season. But it starts once again first week of April, as it always does and the full event schedule and the full details of the season innovations will be coming in mid-January.”

PFL delight fans by making elbows legal going forwardThe change in format will follow another well-publicised rule change that they have made for this year; the introduction of elbows. For season bouts before, elbows were barred to avoid cuts and injuries that could prevent a quick turnaround.

New Year … New Adjustments
YOU asked for ELBOWS@PFLMMA is giving you elbows!

All elbows. All fights. All the time. #PFLMMA 2025 … COMING

— Donn Davis (@DonnDavisPFL) January 6, 2025 View Tweet

But fans were delighted to learn that the rule has been scrapped, and regular season bouts will now take place under the full unified rules as intended. Davis made the announcement that elbows will now be deemed a legal strike earlier this week.

He wrote: “New Year … New Adjustments… YOU asked for ELBOWS… PFL MMA is giving you elbows! All elbows. All fights. All the time. #PFLMMA 2025 … COMING.”

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