The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is an American mixed martial arts league founded by venture capitalist Donn Davis in 2017 and launched in 2018, following the acquisition and restructuring of the former World Series of Fighting promotion in 2017 by MMAX Investment Partners. It is the first major MMA organization in which individual athletes compete in a regular season, post-season, and championship, rather than on a year-round basis. The PFL fighter roster comes from over 25 countries, and 25% of PFL fighters are top 25 world-ranked. The PFL is the only organization in MMA with the sports-season format, where individual fighters compete in a regular season, playoffs, and championship each year, making PFL a “win and advance” meritocracy like all other major sports leagues. The PFL Season features elite MMA athletes across six weight classes, with each fighter having two fights during the PFL Regular Season. Fighters earn regular season points based on their performance, with 3 points for a win, plus bonus points for knockouts and submissions. Each fighter is then seeded in standings for their weight class based on their point totals. Following the Regular Season is the single-elimination PFL Playoffs which leads to the PFL World Championship. The winners of each title bout are crowned PFL World Champion of their respective weight class and earn $1 million. The PFL airs primetime live in the U.S. on ESPN and ESPN+ and is broadcast and streamed to 150 countries with over 20 leading international media distribution.