With playoffs looming, Randy Couture hopes PFL brings back two fights in one night for 2022 season

The start of the 2021 PFL Playoffs is just days away, and no one is more excited than UFC Hall of Famer and current PFL commentator Randy Couture.

Though enthusiastic about the fights regardless of playoff format, Couture hopes the promotion reverts back to its old ways for the 2022 postseason.

“I would vote for the two fights in one night, actually,” Couture recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “I like having the quarterfinal and semifinal. I think it’s something that people were attracted to that’s a special adversity that the fighters are dealing with, to have to load up and figure out how to solve a problem again that same night.”

While fighting multiple times during the same event was not unusual during MMA’s early days, in recent years it’s become more and more rare. The atypical nature of  a two-fights-in-one-night structure presents unfamiliar challenges for fighters. To Couture, that’s what draws eyeballs.

“Obviously, again, there are physical challenges,” Couture said. “They’re still only fighting five rounds, which is equivalent to a championship fight. Again, I thought it added a whole other layer to the onion for the athletes. It made it intriguing. It made it interesting. The storylines changed. You’d think somebody would win something, and then they have a rough first fight. Another guy has a quick knockout or a quick tapout, and now those guys have to move forward. I just thought it added. Again, it just differentiated the PFL from some of the other organizations that are out there in the sport of mixed martial arts right now.”

PFL used the two-fights-in-one-night format for its first two seasons but elected to roll with a more standard four-man playoff bracket for each division during the 2021 season. No plans have been announced for its 2022 season yet.

2021 PFL Playoffs 1 takes place Friday at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The main card airs on ESPN2 and ESPN+ after prelims on ESPN+.

Check out MMA Junkie Radio’s full interview with Randy Couture below: