As part of our Fight Night series, BBC Sport shines a light on MMA promotions across the UK and Europe, their fighters and the characteristics which make each one unique.
Second in the series is a night at cageside with PFL Europe, a subset of the Professional Fighters League, which provides local talent with £211,000 (250,000 euros) prize-yielding tournaments and the opportunity to compete under its global banner.
That familiar big-fight feeling rippled across Newcastle’s Utilita Arena when home favourite Savannah Marshall was shown on the big screens.
As a former undisputed super-middleweight boxing world champion, it’s a situation Marshall has been in on multiple occasions, wrapping her hands backstage as anticipation for a mouth-watering main event grows in the audience.
But PFL Europe’s event in the North East in June carried a significant change to every previous bout Marshall has been involved in – it was an MMA fight.
It was a momentous occasion for the 33-year-old Hartlepool native to make her MMA debut in front of her home fans, but the PFL’s decision to make Marshall the headline act did not come without pre-fight questions.
How would Marshall fare? Would the fight do the prestigious main event slot justice? And is it the right move to put a boxer, who had only been training MMA for nine months, at the top of the card at the expense of athletes who have dedicated much of their lives to the craft?
Following an incredible back-and-forth contest which saw a vociferous crowd on their feet and a relieved Marshall get her hand raised after stopping Mirela Vargas, the reaction from an astounded fellow journalist at cageside answered most of those questions.
“That was one of the best MMA rounds I’ve ever seen,” he exclaimed.
Later, after chattering, excitable fans had left the arena and as clangs from workers deconstructing the blood and sweat-stained canvas echoed through the air, PFL Europe chief Dan Hardy explained why Marshall’s presence benefits the other fighters on the card.
“Savannah brought a lot of attention to this card that potentially a lot of these fighters wouldn’t have got otherwise,” Hardy told BBC Sport.
“The co-main event, Kane Mousah and Dylan Tuke, they were both really excited and thankful to be sharing a card with Savannah. They both took photos with her at the face-offs, they’re big fans.
“Ultimately we’re martial artists. If you’re a boxer, a wrestler, a fighter, you’re a combat sports athlete.”
Marshall forms growing list of PFL boxers
Marshall followed long-term boxing rival Claressa Shields when she signed a contract with the PFL, joining fellow boxer Amanda Serrano, as well as YouTuber-turned-fighter Jake Paul.
The signings are the PFL’s attempts to draw eyes to its organisation through successful rivalries and stars in boxing.
Marshall and Shields became the first female boxers to headline at a major venue in the UK in 2022, in a bout billed as the biggest in women’s history, with Serrano becoming the first woman alongside Katie Taylor to top a card at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden a few months prior.
Paul, meanwhile, lacks the boxing accomplishments of his PFL counterparts but is a big draw, emphasised by his postponed bout with Mike Tyson which was set to be streamed by Netflix and take place at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
Shields has two wins and one loss in the promotion, but Serrano and Paul are yet to make their PFL debuts, with some critics pointing to the signings as being a “gimmick”.
There is a feeling that the PFL’s signing of such stars hurts its claim to be a world-leading MMA promotion alongside the UFC, because mixed martial artists aren’t the ones the organisation are using to draw new eyes to it – boxers are.
There is also little evidence boxers have the skillset to seriously challenge for titles in MMA, and vice versa.
Francis Ngannou, who will make his PFL debut on 19 October, boxed admirably against former world champion Tyson Fury but lost a split decision before being knocked out by Anthony Joshua.
Conor McGregor was stopped after 10 rounds of his boxing match-up with Floyd Mayweather in 2017, while Paul – who made his boxing debut in 2020 with little background in the sport – has since defeated five MMA fighters.
Marshall, as admirable as her performance was against Vargas, has said she has little ambition to challenge for titles in the sport with her main goal being to set up a rematch with Shields.
And it is Marshall’s roadmap which perhaps symbolises the PFL’s MMA-boxing crossover blueprint best – it can be wildly entertaining and profitable in the short term but questions remain over its longevity.
‘PFL Europe is a launching platform’
Where PFL Europe shines is in the organisation providing a gateway to its global promotion. Hardy says it is a “launching platform”.
One fighter who has benefited from this vision is Manchester’s Dakota Ditcheva.
Last year’s European women’s flyweight champion, Ditcheva has continued her fine form on the PFL’s global roster, earning three first-round knockouts to reach this year’s final – and a chance at winning £780,185 ($1m).
Ditcheva’s success provides a blueprint which the young British athletes who fought on Marshall’s undercard can follow.
“If Shanelle Dyer wins a European title this year she’ll be 7-0, potentially she follows Dakota over to the global stage,” said Hardy.
“And Ben Woolliss, he was low on the Newcastle card but I’ve been wanting to sign him since I took this job and I can see his potential.”
Questions will still be asked about the PFL using boxers as a short-term driver of interest, but as Hardy points out, athletes like Marshall also help bring eyes to the younger fighters on the card.
In this case it was the likes of Dyer and Woolliss who would have been grateful for the exposure Marshall provided as they grasped their opportunity in the spotlight with both hands.
