Dan Hardy // Credit: Dolly Clew, Revolver Mag
The PFL is making strides to become a truly global MMA promotion, and one of the promotion's most prominent executives thinks there's one key change that could help take them to the next level.
The PFL's league system offers a much more meritocratic route to a world title, with the best fighters winning their way through to the playoffs, then the finals, on the backs of their performances inside the cage, with wins and finishes earning points that determine their finishing position in the league, before win-or-go-home bouts in the playoffs and finals eventually deciding the season's champions.
With the world championship-level global league fully established, the PFL is now building a talent pipeline to help take the best fighters from each region and feed them onto the world stage.
PFL Europe and PFL MENA are already up and running, with PFL Africa set to follow in 2025. The idea is that the champions from these regional leagues progress to the PFL's global league, where the best fighters compete for their weight division's PFL world championship, and a $1 million prize.
Those building blocks are starting to be put in place to create a clear route from the regional scene to a $1 million championship, and, in an exclusive interview with RG, the PFL's Head of Fighter Operations Dan Hardy revealed that there was one key change that he'd love to enact ahead of the promotion's 2025 seasons that will make the promotion more appealing for fans and fighters alike.
“Honestly, it's an easy one – elbows,” he said.
“Elbows in the PFL, across all the promotions.
"Elbows are in the unified rules of mixed martial arts. We should apply the unified rules to everything that we do – all the promotions that we have under the PFL banner. And we should realign ourselves with the real mixed martial arts fans."
So far, the PFL has opted to bar elbows from its fights in a bid to avoid fighters sustaining the sort of damage that could leave them unable to progress to the next stage of the tournament.
But Hardy explained that in doing so, the elbow ban stifles a major weapon for fighters, especially on the ground, and can also lead to less entertaining fights as a result.
"I think a lot of people, they go, ‘Yeah, I watch the PFL. But elbows, you know…,’ he said.
“There are certain times when I'm watching fights and I can feel a fight slows down in positions where elbows would keep it moving. And even talking to judges after some of the earlier events, they were like, ‘Man, it changes the ability to score on the floor a lot when they can't elbow.’
“So that, for me, is an easy one. It's a super simple solution. We should reintroduce elbows at the first opportunity. The fighters would love it, the fans would love it!"
Hardy also hinted at another major change he'd love to see within the overall structure of the organization, with clear paths of progression, both up and down, between the regional leagues and the global league. In effect, that means promotion and relegation.
"It's really about syncing everything up in the promotion," he said.
"Making sure things feed from one to another and relegate from one to another, if necessary. That’s an idea I’m pitching, as well – promotion and relegation.”
Simon is a sports journalist and MMA reporter with 25+ years' experience covering sports and 15+ years covering mixed martial arts as one of the UK's longest-tenured MMA journalists. He also has more than a decade of experience working in the betting and gaming industry.
He has provided coverage for a plethora of major sports outlets, including BBC Sport, USA Today, Daily Mirror and BT Sport, and has covered Olympic Games, World Cups, FA Cup Finals and UFC title fights during his career.
