Pfl’s Donn Davis: ‘we’re The Good Guys In Mma’

As part of the Professional Fighters League’s (PFL) concerted media outreach, we sat down with Founder and Chairman, Donn Davis, to discuss how the promotion has been shaking up the MMA scene of late.

It’s impossible to talk about MMA without almost immediately mentioning the UFC. Such is the promotion’s overwhelming market share that for many casual observers of the sport, those two acronyms are entirely interchangeable.

As a result, for many years there has been an ongoing debate as to what the second biggest promotion in the sport is, but for Davis 2023 was the year that debate was finally put to bed.

“If you rewind the clock one year, I would say PFL, One FC, and Bellator could all make a claim,” Davis admits. “And they would all have their facts – I would like to argue maybe my facts are slightly taller than theirs – but it was an arguable claim. This year we won it. We achieved that.”

Ending the debate

Presenting his case, Davis points to four insurmountable pieces of evidence, which in his mind makes the organisation the only legitimate title contender.

“Streaming and linear. Call it TV viewership. And that’s done on a per event basis, because some people have 82 games, and some people have 11. On viewership we are so much bigger than the number three and number four promotion, it’s not even close. Today we’re at 40% of the UFC’s audience.

“Number two, distribution. And the key is paid versus not paid. 90% of sports you see on TV aren’t paid. We’re paid in 150 countries. Now some of our cheques are small – $100,000 a year, $50,000 a year. Some are big. We’re paid $10m a year in some places.

“Our quality of distribution, compared to UFC it’s the exact same, but we’re paid far less. In fact, ours is a little better because they have more pay-per-view. So, we actually have the number one distribution around the world. But in terms of paid and the money, we’re about 5% of UFC. Everybody else is about less than 1%.

“Number three, athlete quality. Now Bellator would argue that they have more fighters. They have more top 25 fighters than us because it’s a way bigger roster. But in terms of percentages – what percent of your roster is ranked in the top 25 in the world, and where’s the trend in migration? It’s only going one way.

“The reality is to have a second person in a space that is offering other opportunities actually has a phenomenal economic and social impact that rides alongside it. And for the competitors – who are invariably coming from a difficult place socio-economically – it’s such a transformation.

We’re the good guys in MMA. That’s kind of a difference. We’re disruptive on the good side.

“The final thing is, show me growth across all of those. Just give me the trend. And it’s not even close.”

And where those arguments fall down, Davis is quick to point out that – whether it’s a matter of time, marketing or promotion – levers exist to both catch and surpass rivals on all fronts, before going on to say that roster size specifically is “going to get answered if I hypothetically acquire something.”

Indeed, should the organisation’s widely reported acquisition of rival Bellator come to fruition, the move would be one of the biggest shakeups the sport has ever seen, dramatically increase the PFL’s talent pool overnight and represent another significant move in what has already been a huge year for the organisation.

Making moves

In January the promotion hit the headlines when boxing influencer Jake Paul signed a multi-year agreement which saw the creation of a pay-per-view offering called ‘PFL PPV Super Fight,’ a division of the company which guarantees fighters will receive 50% of revenue from its events.

“He joined the company because he thinks we can become the leader in MMA. He joined it as a visionary businessman. He can fight on his own. He can put on his own events. He’s proven that. He didn’t need us to fight. He loved the opportunity to disrupt the market, build the company,” says Davis.

In May the organisation announced it had reached terms with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, one of the sport’s biggest stars, in a deal that saw the Cameroonian fighter become an equity owner in and Chairman of PFL Africa.

“We’re paying Francis the same money he turned down at UFC. But we gave him two other things. You want to box? Okay. They said no. And Africa’s important to you? Great. It’s important to us. You’re chairman. You get a big equity share of Africa.“

And in August, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund acquired a 20% stake in the company for $100m through SRJ Sports Investments. The deal will also see the launch of another new regional league, PFL MENA, with Saudi Arabia playing host to both Paul and Ngannou’s upcoming Super Fight Events.

The international nature of the PFL’s approach is indicative of Davis’ desire to create ‘The Champions League of MMA’ and an end goal of regional qualifying tournaments that ladder up into a global championship final. The ambition has been buoyed by the success of PFL Europe, an inaugural regional MMA season and joint venture with DAZN which, in 2023, has seen shows hosted in Newcastle, Berlin, and Paris with the championship finals set for Dublin in December.

“The UFC takes its circus on the road a couple times of year,” says Davis pointing to recent numbered events in the UK, Australia and the Middle East. “But what happens when it leaves? PFL’s going to happen.

“In 2024 we’ll launch PFL Middle East. In 2025 we’ll launch PFL Africa, then PFL Mexico, PFL Australia, PFL Asia. The winners of each of those tournaments will fight each other, with the winners of those going on to a global competition.”

It’s this approach that Davis hopes will allow him to tap into national and regional pride, with local fans around the world each supporting their champions on an international stage.

“Let the fan base work for you,” Davis continues. ‘You can’t let it work for you if they don’t have their own local heroes and they don’t have their own local product.”

“If I’m the UFC, I’m monetising. I’m the only game in town. I don’t need to do anything different. But this is the kind of marketplace where you can create fans and develop fighter much quicker than what people think. That’s why I’m so excited about this. Nobody understands it yet.

“MMA fans are not in the US. 85 percent of the sport’s 650 million fans are dispersed. This market is so big, so global, and there’s demand from fans and fighters and media. There’s excess demand over supply and there’s going to be more than one winning company. This is not a monopoly situation.

“Now in five years we won’t have as much revenue as the UFC. There’s not enough time, you know, to do that. That’s not realistic. That doesn’t mean we won’t get there. But in five years we can have an audience as big as them and as many great fighters as them. So, the first goal is that I want to be a legitimate, great number two company.”

Asked what the ambition becomes once that position has been established in five years’ time, Davis responds with a smile, “Once you become a co leader, you might be lining up the leader. Yeah, I might think about it differently.”