Werdum, Usman withdraws show problem with PFL

Underground
1

PFL has twelve fighters fighting 2x in the summer to earn points and the eight fighters with enough points get to fight in an eight man tourny in the fall to see who earns the $1M prize.

Lots of people have spoke out and said having these guys fighting 2x in the summer was too much if you wanted to be able to run fall tournaments and you see this issue at HW right now. Werdum and Usman are out with injury.

Magomedkerimov was the 2018 WW tourny winner and he got injured during the summer fights in 2019 and could not even compete in the fall tourny even though he was the returning champ and favorite to win it again.

Other fighters got injured in their 3rd fight (the quarters) and could not make it to the semis in the past.

I think most MMA fans would like to watch 16-man or 8-man tournaments with big cash paydays at stake to attract good talent but having these guys fight 2x in the summer before the tournament is just asking to have your tournaments fall to pieces before the damn thing even gets started.

PFL should just run normal tournaments. Nobody needs to earn points in the summer to incentivize finishes, big cash bonuses for finishes during the tournament would do that just fine. The way it is now, there is incentive to finish in the summer but its best to win a safe UD during the actual tournament.

2

Pettis had to pullout of last nights PFL as well.

I’d be shocked if even 10% of people think its a good idea to have these guys fights 2x in the summer before a tournament in the fall.

3

Last seasons HW champ Isaev is out of this season now.

The two fights in the summer thing just won’t be able to survive. They just won’t have enough returning and winning fighters stay healthy to keep intended tournaments together.

4

Nah it works as intended. It’s a league format. If someone can’t make the schedule in a league then it’s the next man up. The NFL isn’t going to postpone or reschedule anything if Tom Brady gets injured next season. Being able to stay healthy is as important as talent itself.

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5

I’d have to think that serious injuries are a lot more common in combat sports than most others. Plus all of those athletes in other sports are being paid a salary, if they get hurt they still get paid. In mma if you get hurt before a fight well then that just sucks for you.

6

They’re also signing a lot of washed up guys in the twighlights of their careers who are beat to shit and injury prone.