UFC<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn the past, the PFL has crowned its champions in the finale of each season, near the end of the year. This year, the PFL implemented a single-elimination tournament format, with tournament champions running around at the same time as other PFL champions and titleholders.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, new PFL CEO John Martin revealed the PFL will now have one single champion per each division, just as the UFC does.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically, the PFL crowned champions through its season or tournament format, where the winner held the title for that year,\u201d Martin posted on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize this created some confusion about who truly sat atop each division.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat confusion grew when the PFL and Bellator merged, bringing in not only tournament champions but also legacy Bellator champions who defended their belts, leaving fans unclear on who was the definitive champion in each weight class.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now simplifying our championship system. Going forward, each division will have one PFL World Champion, the single, undisputed titleholder in that weight class.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw this recently when Costello van Steenis scored a last-second win over Johnny Eblen to become the PFL Middleweight World Champion,\u201d Martin continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also know there has been confusion around unique distinctions in the past, like the \u201cSuper Fight\u201d title won by Francis Ngannou. That was a special, one-time designation. Going forward, those belts may be used only for occasional special events, and importantly, I will be engaging directly with Francis to determine what\u2019s next for him in the PFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is clear: one champion, one division, one world title, a system that is simple for athletes to chase and for PFL fans to follow,\u201d said the PFL CEO.<\/p>\n
MMA world reacts to PFL changing their championship format<\/p>\n
Fans have been asking the PFL to change their ways for years and the promotion finally listened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears as though common sense has finally arrived in the PFL,\u201d prominent MMA journalist Ariel Helwani said of the change on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is good. Keep making things clear and simple,\u201d one fan said of the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God for John Martin. We need this clarity to start the building steps for an actual competitive MMA promotional environment,\u201d another fan said.<\/p>\n
One thing that remains unclear at this time is if the PFL will throw out their tournament format for a rankings-based format instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PFL just got a lot less confusing. The self-proclaimed co-leader of MMA made headlines on Wednesday when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,86074,638,1863,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-167021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-john-martin","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-pfl","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1247704046-scaled.jpg\")
Photo by Cooper Neill\/Getty ImagesEach PFL division will now have one undisputed champion<\/p>\n