MMA’s Professional Fighters League Extends ESPN Deal Starting With New Season

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: The Professional Fighters League, MMA’s fast-growing new entrant and the first to run a regular scheduled season like other sports do, has extended a deal with ESPN starting with its 2022 kickoff event April 20.The entire 2022 PFL playoffs and majority of regular season events will air live on ESPN, already home to the UFC, and simulcast on ESPN+ with additional event coverage broadcast on ESPN2.

ESPN platforms will carry pre and post-event coverage and exclusive PFL content along the lines of last year’s four-part series on Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields’ PFL debut and quest to become an MMA world champion.

They will also push into pay-per-view.The agreement runs through 2023 with an option to extend, PFL CEO Peter Murray told Deadline.

Under the previous deal, more events aired on ESPN2 than ESPN proper and not all were simulcast on ESPN+. PFL events will also run on ESPN Deportes and on TSN, ESPN’s Canadian stand-in.“After two successful seasons of providing fans with premium MMA content alongside ESPN, PFL is proud to extend and expand our partnership,” Murray said. “As MMA continues to grow as a major sport and rights property, innovative and differentiated product fulfills the demand among fans for access to the world’s best fighters and events.”“As the home of combat sports, ESPN looks forward to continuing to deliver exciting, live PFL events and powerful storytelling to fans, across all platforms,” said Matt Kenny, ESPN VP, President of Programming and Acquisitions.PFL was founded in 2017, launched the following year and hooked up with ESPN in 2019.