Last night during a NASCAR race that was delayed due to rain, the brand new face of the World Series of Fighting, the Professional Fighters League debuted for the world to see.
WSOF had always been a much maligned promotion, oscillating between compelling matchups between the misfit toys of MMA and garbage events thrown in community rec centers. With this PFL debut event, I feel like they have finally found their niche.
People enjoy fighting. But they seem to enjoy it most in places they weren’t expecting it. For example, if you go to a boxing gym and watch two guys spar, and they only land two punches each, you’ll be bored out of your mind. If that same thing happened in the front row of a ballet recital, you’d be pumped up all day. (BTW, can we please make fighting at ballet recitals a thing?) This is the same idea behind the PFL’s NASCAR partnership. Of course, all these rednecks watching cars drive in a circle at extremely fast speeds would watch a fight. Shit, I imagine fights start in the stands at NASCAR all the time.
So these fans may not necessarily be MMA fans, but they will watch two dude fuck each other up, especially if it just seems to be happening. Imagine with me if you will. You were up early in the morning, your cooler’s packed full of non-glass alcoholic beverages to smuggle into the stands. Your pre-gamed up, multitudes of beers in you. About to sit in the sun for hours on end, watching cars go fast. Smelling rubber, listening to engines wail on by, and then… rain. Fuck it, you think, day’s ruined. As the cars come off the track and head to garage, you start sizing up the crowd around you, seeing if you can score some weed to smoke in your car. Then the lights fall on a small tent covered cage in the middle of the infield. And it hits you, shit’s about to get real.
This is the instant appeal of the brand new PFL. Cage fighting was made to service the blood lust of hoi polloi. If the people aren’t willing to seek it out, you gotta bring it to them. The PFL debut event outdoors during a Florida rainstorm hearkens back to the days when MMA was conducted in Indian reservations and under tents behind Mississippi bars. It speaks directly to the spirit of what this dumb sport is all about. And without any shame, I absolutely love it.
Let’s check out some fun dumb shit that happened during the Professional Fighters League’s inaugural event.
Brian Foster nearly fucked up Jon Fitch, until Fitch did Fitch stuff and took the victory.
Foster with the BIG uppercut! #PFLDaytona pic.twitter.com/6ugSCV5ZtG
— PFL (@PFLMMA) July 1, 2017
#PFLDaytona: Check out this devastating right hook @BrianFosterMMA landed on @jonfitchdotnet! 👊🏽 #FistOfFoster pic.twitter.com/EIkL6PtFZA
— PFL (@PFLMMA) July 1, 2017
TAP!!!
Boom! @jonfitchdotnet with the W! #PFLDaytona pic.twitter.com/rTSUnUrHMd— PFL (@PFLMMA) July 1, 2017
Enjoy this Jon Fitch dance. It’s legend. Also, how the fuck is anyone gonna make a million dollars off this? That’s fucking baffling.
With these epic dance moves, @jonfitchdotnet lands the #1 seed spot towards $1Million dollars! #PFLDaytona pic.twitter.com/eYVQToST9l
— PFL (@PFLMMA) July 1, 2017
Also, the Kansas City Bandit, Jason High is back to business with the PFL, skating around the slippery cage, and snatching Ws.
