PFL: How boxers like Savannah Marshall help ‘bring attention’ to MMA fighters

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.”