WSOF goes back to the future, rebrands as Professional Fighters League

The World Series of Fighting originally was conceived as a tournament, pitting 16 fighters against each other for a $1 million payout.

Bearing the name World Series of MMA, the upstart promotion made waves behind the scenes for more than a year, offering wild sums for new and established talent.

When it finally debuted in 2012 as the World Series of Fighting, the promotion scaled down its goals, switching to the more widely used format of putting on individual fights. Over the next half-decade, it built itself into one of the stronger players in the MMA market. WSOF launched the careers of new talents while helping to rebuild veterans who’d fallen on hard times.

The promotion also encountered its fair share of rocky times. A former CEO went to jail for failing to file a tax return. A former matchmaker was ousted from an executive role over conflict of interest concerns. And the promotion was sued by several backers and former employees for bad business practices.

Today, three months after a new financial backer stepped into the picture, and with a TV deal expiring at the end of this year, WSOF is again rebranding. According to a press release, the Professional Fighters League will debut in January 2018, putting up $10 million dollars in prize money over seven weight divisions.

“The Professional Fighters League brings a proven sports format that fans love and athletes respect to MMA for the first time,” stated PFL Executive Chairman Russ Ramsey in the release. “The launch of the (PFL) continues the evolution of MMA into a professional, mass-market, prime-time sport for a global audience.”

Ramsey, who once served as the chair for Washington, D.C.’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics, joins venture capitalists Donn Davis and Mark Leschly as the promotion’s new executives, which reportedly purchased WSOF’s assets for $25 million.

Ray Sefo

WSOF President Ray Sefo and former CEO Carlos Silva will now respectively serve as fighting operations president and president of event production and business operations.

Advertising the PFL as “open to all professional MMA fighters worldwide,” the new promotion will feature a regular season during which fighters will compete in superfights. At the end of each season, those with the best records will advance to a single-elimination postseason playoff tournament over seven weight divisions. Tournament winners will get $1 million, with an additional $3 million to be “shared between other regular season and playoff competitors,” according to the release.

The PFL already holds the contracts for more than 100 WSOF fighters, per the release. The promotion aims to highlight Olympic judoka Kayla Harrison, who signed a high-profile deal with WSOF this past year.

Sefo stated: “All fighters deserve to control their own destiny, to win or lose on their own merits. There are thousands of professional MMA fighters, and yet in the entire history of the sport, only a handful of these athletes have ever fought for $1 million. We are proud to offer that opportunity to every fighter in the Professional Fighters League.”

According to the Washington Post, the promotion could host events at the Baltimore campus for apparel maker Under Armour, as well as the Entertainment and Sports Arena, where the NBA’s Washington Wizards practice. PFL backer Ted Leonsis owns the NHL’s Washington Capitals, WNBA’s Mystics and Wizards. The family of Washington Nationals owner Ted Lerner is also an investor, along with eSports executive Brandon Beck and Tucker Kain, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ chief financial officer.

The Post report said the new promotion is courting new broadcast partners with the WSOF’s current deal with NBC set to expire at the end of this year.

For more on WSOF’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.