PFL Canada is something on the radar of the Professional Fighters League for the coming calendar year, according to PFL’s CEO. PFL San Diego had just wrapped up with several looming domestic events set for the US as part of the promotion’s Summer Series, and PFL CEO John Martin also had a lot to tease for the future. At the PFL San Diego post-fight press conference, although nothing was outlined in a concrete way with a particular event in the Great Fight North, when asked if the Smart Cage would be making its way to Canada, Martin said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“I want to come to Canada. We’re going to be looking very seriously in 2027… Not in any level of specificity yet [for a location in Canada]. I mean, we still have a couple of open dates the back half of this year that we’re making final decisions as to an event location. But I just think, there’s a few places that I would like us to go. I’d like us to go to Australia. I would love for us to go to Brazil at some point in the relative near future.”
“Mexico has outreached us. Russia has outreached us and various countries in and around there, some of the stans. But I think it makes sense for this promotion to go to Canada. I’ve mentioned it to several people. I think first of all, it’s our neighbor and it’s a great MMA country. There’s a lot of really hardcore fans there and there’s some great fighters there as you mentioned.”
PFL touches on other global markets that they are intrigued by during a separate John Martin chat
During an interview earlier in the fight week amid PFL San Diego proceedings, during a conversation on BTB in the context of expanding the brand across the world, Martin said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“We look at, have we been there before? If we have, how is it done? A lot of it also we’re beginning to respond to incoming asks and incoming demand. I’ve had expressions of interest from Mexico City, from Sao Paulo, from Argentina, from Russia, from Singapore, just to name a few. Those are all places that we haven’t been to yet.”
“This year we went to Madrid, Spain. We had Costello Van Steenis, a Spaniard at the top of the card. I think it’s especially fun when you could bring a local fighter into a new place where you think there’s pent-up demand for MMA. Since we left Spain, we’ve gotten now increasing interest from other places in Spain, not even Madrid. That is heartening to me because it means what we’re doing people like and they want to see more of it.”
