The Professional Fighters League, MMA's newest entrant and the first to run a regular season like other sports, has extended its partnership with ESPN, which will begin with the league's 2022 debut event on April 20.

The entire 2022 PFL playoffs, as well as the majority of regular season events, will be shown live on ESPN and simulcast on ESPN+, with extra event coverage carried on ESPN2. Pre- and post-event coverage, as well as unique PFL content, will be available on ESPN platforms, similar to last year's four-part series on Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields' PFL debut and quest to become an MMA world champion. They'll also try to break into pay-per-view.

According to PFL CEO Peter Murray, the deal will last through 2023, with an option to extend it. More events broadcast on ESPN2 than on ESPN, and not all of them were simulcast on ESPN+ under the previous agreement. PFL games will also be broadcast on ESPN Deportes and TSN, ESPN's Canadian equivalent.

“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 established in 2017, debuted the following year, and partnered with ESPN in 2019. It skipped live events in 2020, instead focusing on developing its own Smart Cage technology and launching PFL Studios, which would produce unique content. PFL can analyze biometric data like fighter heart rate and calories burned using proprietary chips and gloves, and is developing new benchmarks, analytics, and tools to "create more entertaining experience for fans, more gamification, more content, and storytelling," according to Murray. When a fighter is up against the cage fencing, a "ghost cam" makes it appear as if it has vanished.

Murray claims that last season's ratings were increased, and that revenue will quadruple in 2022 compared to 2021. He refused to reveal the company's financials because it is a privately held company.

“MMA is the growth sport of this decade. There are 550 million fans around the world, it’s the third largest sport behind soccer and basketball and it’s the youngest of all major fan bases,” he said. Half of that base watches a lot and is underserved.

“ESPN has committed to being a destination of MMA with its UFC relationship and now PFL [which] presents a premium product on a different night of the week that is complementary and differentiated from UFC, to help to fill that demand and grow the space,” Murray said — referring to PFL’s much larger MMA rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, owned by Endeavor. UFC has 1,207 athletes listed on its website and revenue pushing $300 million.

The PFL has a unique format for the sport, with a regular season, playoffs, and championship. He stated that athletes "know who they are fighting, when they are fighting." "They have two guaranteed fights a season and if they make the playoffs we measure their performance with points,” including extra points for finishing fights versus leaving it to the judges. “That means more exciting fights," says the narrator.

Each season, the victors of the championships in six weight divisions each receive a payment for $1 million.

Murray said the PFL keeps its top performers each year, deleting around 40 percent of its roster (of 60 combatants plus alternates) and repopulating it with fighters. It has signed 50 more fighters for a new series on fuboTV called PFL Challengers.

Last season, 25% of PFL fighters were independently ranked in the top 25 in the world, according to the league, which was broadcast and streamed live in 160 countries with partners such as RMC Sport, FPT, and Sky Sport.

Anheuser-Busch, IBM, Geico, DraftKings, Bose, Socios.com, the Air Force Reserve, and the United States Air Force Reserve are among the sponsors. Marine Corps is a branch of the United States military.

Ares Capital, Luxor Capital, Elysian Park Ventures, Swan Ventures, Knighthead, Legends, and various NBA, MLB, and NHL team owners are among the investors in PFL. It closed a $65 million financing round in early 2021, bringing its total capital to $175 million.