Peter Murray: PFL vs. Bellator Champions Card Will Not Be a 'One-Off Event'

Professional Fighters League CEO Peter Murray believes the inaugural PFL-Bellator card will be a monumental event to kick off a stacked 2024 — including pay-per-view powerhouses and aggressive expansion — for the promotion.

At the first PFL-Bellator press conference on Wednesday at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, Murray spoke on PFL’s plans to host an annual PFL-Bellator card and plans to re-imagine the Bellator brand with the Bellator International Champions Series.

“[Bellator’s] a beloved brand of MMA,” Murray said to a collection of reporters. “We have an opportunity to re-imagine the Bellator brand, support these great fighters and the property fits into our portfolio.”

The PFL vs. Bellator card takes place on Feb. 24 at Boulevard Hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bellator champions Johnny Eblen, Ryan Bader, Jason Jackson and Patricio Freire are defending their promotion’s honor against the likes of PFL’s season champions such as Impa Kasanganay and Jesus Pinedo, with stars from both sides sprinkled in between.

While each promotion comes in hoping to dominate the other, the card has become a glimpse into the future of PFL and the heights it can reach with its significantly stronger roster.

To keep things organized, Murray explained that PFL events can be categorized one of three ways: megafights with stars like Francis Ngannou that would qualify for pay-per-view events, the traditional PFL season format, and cards that fall under the Bellator International Championship Series.

“This roster overall across each of these franchises, pay-per-view fighters, global season fighters, and then Bellator fighters in the champions series, the roster is really second to none, and it’s on. We’re not stopping here,” Murray said.

For Bellator stars like bantamweight champion Patrick Mix or lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov, this platform would allow them to defend their belts as they would in the traditional Bellator format.

In the next two years, PFL hopes to grow its regional scene as well by expanding into six different international leagues. PFL launched PFL Europe in 2023 and is set to launch PFL MENA in the Middle East later this year.

With 30 planned events marked out, 2024 could be the most expansive year yet for PFL, and Murray says the PFL-Bellator megacard is just the tip of the iceberg.

“KSA [Saudi Arabia] has become the fight capital of the world candidly and we’re in the mix,” Murray said. “This is not going to be a one-off event.”