Ever since the Professional Fighters League acquired Bellator MMA in November of 2023, it looked like the latter promotion was going to be living on borrowed time. This past week was one ripe with changes across the board for the PFL, which hosted five Bellator MMA events under the Bellator Champions Series banner from March to September of last year.
Planned Bellator MMA events for Chicago in October of 2024, Paris, France in November of last year and Saitama, Japan on Dec. 31 were canceled ahead of the scheduled fight nights. The scrubbed Paris card was to be Bellator’s second visit to France in 2024, with refunds were given to ticketholders.
The Bellator Champions Series event originally announced for Oct. 12 in Chicago is being rescheduled, a promotion official confirms. No new date set at this time.
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohn) September 10, 2024
A week ago Monday, PFL founder Donn Davis took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce that the league would end its rule banning elbow strikes across the board ahead of its new season. Elbow strikes were legalized for the PFL Championships card over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
New Year … New Adjustments
YOU asked for ELBOWS@PFLMMA is giving you elbows!All elbows. All fights. All the time. #PFLMMA 2025 … COMING
— Donn Davis (@DonnDavisPFL) January 6, 2025
Subsequent to the Jan. 6 announcement ending the rule outlawing elbow strikes, the PFL revealed this past Wednesday that its top prize for tournament champions would be cut in half to $500,000 (USD). With the dawn of a new work week on Monday, veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani revealed some news about the future of Bellator MMA.
Helwani: Bellator MMA “Dead”
During Monday afternoon’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, he mentioned that Bellator MMA will effectively no longer exist as a brand.
“Right now, I can tell you, on Monday, Jan. 13 at 1:20 pm Eastern Time, Bellator is dead,” Helwani began. “Bellator, as we know it, is no more. Bellator is dead. You will not see Bellator events anymore.”
At the time of Helwani making the announcement that Bellator will cease to exist as a brand, there weren’t any plans to make the Jan. 25 event from Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates legally accessible to viewers inside the United States. Subsequent to Helwani’s news, it was announced that MAX (formerly known as HBO Max) would be carrying the card to American audiences.
With the Jan. 25 event in Dubai, the events will now be rebranded under the new title “PFL Champions Series.”
Jan. 25 Event Headlined by (Likely) Final Bellator MMA Title Fight Ever
That Saturday night, the Champions Series event will, in all probability, be headlined by the last championship contest in the history of Bellator MMA. The Bellator Lightweight Championship will be at stake in Dubai when current titleholder, undefeated Usman Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 7-0 Bellator), squares off against challenger Paul Hughes (13-1 MMA, 1-0 Bellator.)
Hughes joined the Bellator MMA active roster ahead of its June 22 Bellator Champions Series card in Dublin, Ireland from 3Arena after posting a mark of 8-1 in UK-base Cage Warriors from the summer of 2019 until the spring of 2024. He had an active year last year, going 3-0 from April to October, scoring a split decision victory over A.J. McKee (22-2 MMA, 21-1 Bellator) during Battle of the Giants this past fall.
The co-main event is a nontitle affair at heavyweight pitting Vadim Nemkov (18-2, 1 NC MMA, 9-0, 1 NC Bellator) against Tim Johnson (18-10 MMA, 4-5 Bellator). Johnson went 1-1 during the 2024 PFL season.
Bellator MMA Light Heavyweight Champion Anderson Weighs In on News
When the news that Bellator would cease to exist as a brand earlier Monday, MMA fans and fighters alike offered up their thoughts on the move. Corey Anderson (18-6, 1 NC MMA, Bellator MMA Light Heavyweight Champion, who was scheduled to appear during the Jan. 25 card against Vadim Nemkov before the fight was scrubbed over the latter’s claim that Anderson was too challenging of an adversary, took to X to discuss Monday’s developments.
Imagine being the champion of an organization chilling on the couch and your wife walks in and tells you "did you see this? Bellator is dead now?"… and all you can do is shrug your shoulders in confusion…. CUZ you still haven't heard a thing. Lol
Yeaaaah, that was me.— Corey 'Overtime' Anderson (@CoreyA_MMA) January 13, 2025
The fact that Corey Anderson had to find out that the Bellator brand would become non-existent through his own wife isn’t a shocking development, all things considered. Throughout the entirety of this process following the PFL buying Bellator MMA, the promotion hasn’t been transparent with some of Bellator’s high-profile fighters.
This is, essentially, the MMA equivalent of a 9-to-5 employee showing up to work one morning expecting to get to their cubicle for another day on the job, only to get to the door and find out that their keycard will no longer work and the lights are off in the building.
If the PFL had been more transparent about what was going on with Bellator MMA with their fighters from the beginning, none of this would have happened in this manner. A fighter like Corey Anderson should not have had to find out from his wife that the Bellator brand was finished.
Final Thoughts
When the PFL bought Bellator right before the Thanksgiving holiday inside the United States in 2023, there were bound to be hiccups along the way. The PFL continuing to hold events under the Bellator MMA signature amounted to what was, in essence, a stay of execution.
Monday’s announcement from Ariel Helwani and the reveal that the Champions Series would continue under the PFL signature resulted in Bellator receiving its last rites.
