PFLW Is The Latest Initiative In PFL’s Focus On Women In MMA

The Professional Fighters League has made promoting its female fighters a significant focus.

To show the promotion’s commitment to the women on its roster, the organization launched PFLW (Professional Fighters League Women) as the latest layer in that initiative. The PFL launched in 2018, highlighted by Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison.

Harrison was the only prominent female on the young promotion’s roster at that time. Since then, the PFL has expanded and continued to bring more female combat sports athletes into the fold. In signing world champion boxers Claressa Shields, Amanda Serrano, and Savannah Marshall to compete in MMA, the PFL has begun to carve a niche.

While the UFC and other promotions have long had weight classes for women, PFL has delivered something different. Despite limited or no experience in mixed martial arts, the PFL has provided Shields and others a major platform to compete professionally in a second combat sport while capitalizing financially on the reputations they’ve earned in boxing.

Over the past three years, female boxing champions looking to expand their professional horizons have found a home with the PFL.

In addition to offering another platform to earn and compete, PFLW further distinguishes the athletes as faces of the organization’s newest brand. Perhaps most appealing to the athletes is the freedom the PFL has allowed.

The promotion has not forced them to compete exclusively in MMA or on PFL shows. Shields, Serrano, and Marshall plan to continue boxing while competing in MMA. Serrano is scheduled to defend her boxing featherweight titles against Danila Ramos on October 27.

Per a PFL representative, PFLW is a separate entity under the organization’s umbrella and there will be all-women’s events beginning in 2024.

The brand covers all of the promotion’s female fighters across all weight classes. The idea seems to be to provide the women of the PFL with a more focused designation on the roster and targeted promotion and spotlight.

In September, PFL CEO Peter Murray brought Amber Leibrock, Shields, and Marshall to NASDAQ in New York City to celebrate the launch of PFLW.

“Since our inception, we’ve had a fighter-first mission and PFLW is the next exciting chapter in our story,” Murray said to me via text message. “We have the world’s best female fighters – Kayla Harrison, Larissa Pacheco, Claressa Shields, Amanda Serrano and Savannah Marshall. We’re committed to empowering all female athletes and provide them with a dedicated, global platform to become world champions. We pride ourselves on having a true meritocracy where every fighter is given equal opportunities.”

Perhaps the first example of the aforementioned “meritocracy” lies in the fact that the winner of the women’s featherweight championship bout on Nov. 24 between Larissa Pacheco and Marina Mokhnatkina will receive the same $1 million prize as the winner of the men’s title bouts on the same night in Washington, D.C.

Harrison will also make her return to the SmartCage to face Julia Budd in the nation’s capital.

Expect to see the PFLW flag flown prominently before, during, and after those bouts, as some of its biggest stars will be in action on the promotion’s biggest night.