The Professional Fighters League (PFL) and ESPN announced today that they’ve reached a new multi-year agreement, which will run through 2023 with an option to extend. The new deal will expand ESPN’s coverage of the PFL to include the entire 2022 PFL Playoffs, and a majority of the regular season events on ESPN, ESPN2, and simulcast on ESPN+.
Matt Kenny, ESPN Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions, said: “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.”
The new agreement will begin with the 2022 PFL Regular Season kickoff event on April 20. Not only will PFL fights air on ESPN’s platforms but the network will give fight fans pre and post-fight coverage, and exclusive PFL content.
“After two successful years of providing fans with premium MMA content alongside ESPN, PFL is proud to extend and expand our agreement,” said PFL CEO Peter Murray. “As MMA continues to evolve as a sport and rights property, our differentiated product and unique approach will help shape its path forward and in 2022 fans can expect more events, matchups between the world’s best fighters and innovative content than ever before.”
As the second-largest MMA company in the world, the PFL prides itself on being the fastest growing and most innovative sports league. Last year, the PFL and fuboTV announced that they are partnering up for a new PFL Challenger Series. Under the multi-year agreement, the PFL Challenger Series will stream exclusively on the Fubo Sports Network, and on fuboTV.