Panini does not hold the UFC license right now, and it has not since 2023. That single fact explains more about Contenders PFL than any checklist breakdown can.
Collectors new to MMA cards sometimes assume Contenders PFL is a UFC product under a different name, or a stopgap until Panini gets the UFC license back. Neither is accurate, and the real story is a useful map of how sports-card licensing actually works.
Three companies have each held exclusive UFC card rights at different points over the past 17 years, and the current split between UFC and PFL licensing is the result of real, documented business decisions, not a temporary gap.
Here is the licensing timeline in full, and why Panini chose to build a standalone MMA product around PFL specifically rather than wait out a UFC deal.
Topps was the first company to produce mainstream UFC trading cards, holding the exclusive license from 2009 through 2020. That eleven-year run established UFC cards as a real category within the broader sports-card hobby, not a niche side product.
When that license ended in 2020, it opened the door for a new exclusive partner, and Panini moved into that space immediately.
Panini became the exclusive UFC card licensee starting in 2021, releasing UFC products across its Prizm, Chronicles, and other established brand lines. That run ended in 2023, with 2023 Panini Immaculate UFC standing as the company's final licensed UFC release.
The license did not simply lapse; UFC moved it to a new partner in a deal announced in early 2024, and Panini has not held UFC rights since.
In February 2024, UFC signed a multi-year deal returning its trading card license to Topps, now operating under Fanatics ownership after Fanatics acquired the Topps brand in 2021. The first product under this new deal, 2024 Topps Chrome UFC, launched that same month.
This closed the loop on a Topps-to-Panini-to-Fanatics/Topps cycle that collectors tracking UFC cards specifically need to understand: current UFC cards run exclusively through Fanatics's Topps brand, not Panini, and that has been true since early 2024.
Contenders PFL is Panini's answer to losing the UFC license: a standalone MMA product built on a different promotion's brand entirely. PFL, which acquired Bellator MMA in November 2023 and has been merging rosters into a single champion-per-division format since, gave Panini a genuine MMA property to build around.
This is not a continuation of Panini's old UFC checklist with the UFC logo swapped out. It uses PFL's own roster, branding, and event calendar, built from the ground up as its own product rather than a reskinned leftover.
If you are specifically chasing UFC fighters under a UFC license, Contenders PFL is the wrong product regardless of how good its autograph checklist looks. Those cards exist under Fanatics's Topps Chrome UFC line, not anywhere in Panini's current catalog.
Conversely, if you are chasing PFL's actual roster, including legacy Bellator names who fought in cages that no longer carry that specific banner, Contenders PFL is the only dedicated product built around them. Knowing which license covers which fighter roster is the single most useful piece of context for navigating MMA cards in 2026.
It is worth resisting the instinct to treat this as a temporary state that will resolve into one unified MMA card market again. Fanatics and Topps have a multi-year UFC deal, and PFL's own growth, including its Bellator acquisition and ongoing unification bouts through 2025 and 2026, gives Panini real incentive to keep building Contenders PFL as its own line rather than treating it as a placeholder.
Collectors budgeting across both promotions should plan for two genuinely separate card ecosystems going forward, each with its own checklist, pricing, and chase cards, rather than expecting one to fold back into the other.
No, Panini has not held the UFC license since its final 2023 Immaculate UFC release.
Fanatics, through its Topps brand, since a February 2024 deal.
No, it is a standalone product built exclusively around the PFL brand and roster.
November 2023, which is why legacy Bellator fighters now appear on PFL-licensed cards.
Topps, exclusively, from 2009 through 2020.
Once you know which roster belongs to which license, the next step is protecting whichever MMA cards you actually land. EVORETRO's perfect fit inner sleeves work for either promotion's cards before they go into a toploader or binder.
!
