Kron Gracie has just announced that he will be returning to MMA at Victory Fighting League 3 on December 12th, 2025; marking his first fight since being released by the UFC. For many fighters leaving the world’s biggest combat sports promotion signals the end of their career, but Kron has decided to continue competing on the regional MMA circuit. VFL might be fairly new as a promotion but they’ve already managed to sign some pretty big names like UFC veterans Julio Arce and Sheymon Moraes. Kron is the biggest name on their roster so far though, so it’s only fitting that he gets the main event slot in his promotional debut.
Kron is also walking straight into a title-shot in his first VFL fight, as the promotion will be crowning their very first featherweight champion when he fights Tom Picciano. The two men have fairly similar records, as Kron is currently 5-3 in MMA and Picciano now holds a 7-3 after making a successful VFL debut just two months ago. They’ll be battling it out over five rounds and each man has their own mission coming into the fight. For Kron this is a chance to get back in the win column after being knocked out in his final UFC fight against Bryce Mitchell.
For Picciano, this is a massive opportunity that doesn’t come around very often at all for a fighter on the regional MMA circuit. Fighters with the kind of name value and attention that Kron has aren’t competing at this level very often and a win over him would help Picciano break into the highest level of the sport. He has the tools to do it too, as he’s already shown that he’s a well-rounded fighter capable of winning the fight in all areas. Kron on the other hand has stayed true to his roots as an elite BJJ competitor and every single one of his wins have come by way of submission.
Victory Fighting League announced the news that Kron Gracie was returning to MMA against Tom Picciano at VFL 3 during the broadcast of their last event, and then confirmed it in a post to their official Instagram account:
