Following Historic 2022 Regular Season, PFL Gears Up For Playoffs

Prior to the start of the regular season, the Professional Fighters League (PFL) maintained confidence that 2022 would be its biggest year yet.

The promotion kicked 2022 off with the widely-successful PFL Challenger Series, which paved the way for a number of up-and-coming stars to get the opportunity to compete on its main roster and work towards becoming a PFL champion and earning a million-dollar purse.

Thanks to the PFL Challenger Series, fighters like Carlos Leal and Josh Silveria are now just a couple of wins away from changing their lives forever.

The organization also worked hard in widening its global reach even more as PFL secured a record number of partnerships with major broadcasters all over the world prior to the start of the 2022 season, which expanded its presence to over 160 countries across the globe.

Just this year, the league locked up partnerships with RMC Sport in France, Fighting.DE in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Torneos in Latin America (via DirecTV), Sky in New Zealand, MBC Group in the Middle East and North Africa, Mola TV in Southeast Asia and Italy, and ESPN for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Because of these continuous expansion efforts, PFL's audience has continued to grow.

According to PFL co-founder Donn Davis in an interview with MMAJunkie.com, PFL already has about a third of the audience of the UFC.

"Our audience per event, we're now 33% of the UFC audience," Davis said. "Think of that, that's insane. This is only our fourth year and they're in their 30th year, and we're a third of their viewing audience per event."

Speaking to the UK's SunSports, PFL CEO Peter Murray claimed that the league has enjoyed exponential growth in multiple areas.

"We are fast growing on every level; audience, fanbase growth, commercial business, and revenue," Murray stated. "We are the fastest growing league in all of sport, not just MMA, based on year over year growth.

"We've had a 100% audience growth this past year, and it continues to climb."

The 2022 regular season itself provided a handful of memorable and unexpected moments.

Anthony Pettis returned to vintage form with a season-opening submission win that proved to be enough to earn him his first PFL postseason berth.

Defending champions like Bruno Cappelozza and Antonio Carlos Jr. appeared primed to tear through the season once again, but both men faced respective setbacks this year.

Carlos Jr. qualified for the postseason, but he was forced to sit out due to an ACL injury.

Speaking of missing out on the postseason, two-time champion Ray Cooper III failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in his career, following a season debut that saw him miss weight and then subsequently lose.

The season likewise saw the continued dominance of the league's biggest star Kayla Harrison, who appears to be well on her way to claiming a historic third-straight PFL championship.

Harrison also made headlines by being the lone female and only non-UFC fighter to be nominated for a 2022 ESPY Best MMA Fighter Award.

In just a few weeks' time, PFL returns to action for the home stretch of its 2022 campaign.

Much like the recently-concluded regular season, the upcoming playoffs will likely be filled with twists, turns, and unforgettable moments.

This season's playoffs will also mark the first time that the league heads to international soil with the last two playoff events--PFL 8 and PFL 9--taking place in the United Kingdom.

The postseason kicks off with PFL 7 on August 5th at the Hulu Theater of the Madison Square Garden in New York City before heading across the pond as PFL 8 happens at the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.

On the other hand, PFL 9 shifts to the Copperbox Arena in London, England.

The 2022 season no doubt has been one for the books, and there's still a lot of exciting mixed martial arts action on deck.

With the biggest prize in the sport still up for grabs, expect even more fast-paced action in the coming weeks.