Regional Titles – The next Step in MMA’s Evolution and PFL’s pioneering attempt at them.

MMA has become more mainstream due to the UFC‘s partnership with ESPN and its potential move to Netflix. However, with the existence of rival companies such as the PFL, ONE, RIZIN, and now the GFL, we are likely to see new sets of world titles. However, regional titles are something that we haven’t seen done, at least not often, in the MMA sphere.

The PFL is currently trying to get off the ground globally and has now had a few successful tournaments, with champions in its PFL Europe tournaments and its recent PFL MENA tournaments, which all crowned European and MENA or Middle Eastern-north Africa regional champions in four weight divisions.

This is a huge move not just for the PFL but also for MMA as a sport worldwide. MMA has only recently been developing a world amateur scene for the sport of mixed martial arts, with the IMMAF taking that undertaking. Now, the PFL is taking responsibility for developing proper regional scenes worldwide.

Why Regional Titles matter in combat sports.

Regional titles in the world of boxing are given the love that they deserve. Boxing has the highest number of athletes of all combat sports, and it has had the most time to develop worldwide. This has left every continent with a rich history of regional competition and championships. Many pro boxers in Europe, Asia, and Oceania have been able to build financially secure careers in the sport of boxing despite never reaching the world level.

This respect for the regional scene has even led to regional titles making a big comeback in the Americas, with promotions such as Overtime Boxing and ProBox TV helping boxers stay relevant and make money by taking fights for regional belts from the four sanctioning bodies: the WBC, IBF, WBO, and WBA. This lets boxers who have fallen off get more opportunity at the tail end of their careers and up-and-comers to build up organically, winning varying titles against proper competition as they go further in their careers, as opposed to blatantly protecting prospects as boxing has infamously done in the past.

So what does this mean for MMA?

Now that MMA is a more developed combat sport, regional titles are slowly becoming proper belts associated with one of the biggest promotions in MMA with the PFL. So if the sport of MMA can keep the ball rolling, we can develop a proper scene where fighters may be able to still make a proper living despite not being able to achieve the heights that the greats of the sport do; however, to keep the sport alive us as fans have to support the lesser talent of the sport in order to the grow of the world of MMA.

Making it a sport where even being a national champion, like Strikeforce, used to be back in its heyday. It can make you a legend in your town, and that’s what martial arts and combat sports should be all about: making each other better through the trials of combat sports. So, good luck to the PFL and pray that they find success. As long as they and the other promotions grow the sport, more opportunities will materialize for those who search for them worldwide.