Following a year off due to the coronavirus pandemic, the tournament-based promotion, which crowns a new champion each season with the winner taking home a $1 million grand prize, has announced its upcoming schedule along with the participants competing in the lightweight and featherweight divisions.
The first PFL card back takes place on April 23 with the remaining regular season dates scheduled for April 29, May 6, June 10, June 17, and June 25. The cards will air on ESPN2 and ESPN+ in primetime.
The first two announced weight classes will feature a pair of two-time returning champions as well.
In the lightweight division, Natan Schulte will compete in his third PFL season after claiming the lightweight title in the first two seasons, earning $2 million in prize money. The Brazilian will have a tougher road to the title in 2021; the PFL beefed up the lightweight roster with former UFC champion Anthony Pettis joining the mix after he signed as a free agent.
The rest of the lightweight division includes UFC veterans Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Clay Collard, Johnny Case and Marcin Held as well as Akhmed Aliev, Joilton Lutterbach, Mikhail Odintsov and Loik Radzhabov.
Over in the featherweight division, two-time champion Lance Palmer will return looking for a third straight title after largely dominating the competition in the past. He’ll be joined by British standout Brendan Loughnane as well as Tyler Diamond, Bubba Jenkins, Movlid Khaybulaev, Sheymon Moraes, Jason Soarez and Jo Sungbin.
“It has always been our goal to bring in the best talent the MMA world has to offer, and I believe we’ve done that with the 2021 roster,” PFL President of Fighter Operations Ray Sefo said in a prepared statement. “The featherweight and lightweight divisions are some of the toughest in the sport, and our past champions are going to have an even tougher road to the title than ever before. I can’t wait to kick this year off on April 23.”
The PFL is expected to have more roster announcements in the very near future.
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