Key Takeaways
- Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian are merging Most Valuable Promotions with the Professional Fighters League into a single MVP MMA brand by early 2027, creating a nearly 400-fighter roster across boxing and MMA and promising a fighter-first, higher-pay model.
- Dana White brushed off the move, saying MVP and PFL are two organizations that "don’t sell tickets and nobody watches" and insisting they aren’t competition for the UFC, prompting Paul to fire back that "numbers don’t lie, Dana does."
- MVP MMA’s debut event headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano reportedly peaked at 17 million live global viewers, and Paul is teasing both his own MMA debut and big-name super-fights as the new promotion ramps up.
Dana White has made it very clear that he's unbothered by the new merger between Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) and the Professional Fighters League (PFL).
On Thursday (July 30), Paul and co-founder Nakisa Bidarian announced that the two companies are merging into a single combat sports entity, creating a roster of nearly 400 athletes across MMA and boxing. The PFL brand will be retired in favor of MVP MMA, with that transition expected to wrap by January 2027.
In a statement on X, Paul said the merger: "I’m going to war for fighters. In less than five years, MVP has disrupted the combat sports world, broken multiple viewership records, elevated women’s boxing to unprecedented heights, and produced some of the biggest events in the history of the sport."
Addressing a Wall Street Journal article cautioning MVP not to "pick a fight" with Dana White or the UFC, Paul added: "The Wall Street Journal said we want to pick a fight with the UFC and Dana White. We don’t just wanna pick a fight. We want to win the fight."
White was asked about the merger on Saturday (August 1), and it seems like he isn't too worried about MVP MMA impacting the UFC. "They’re two organizations that don't sell tickets and nobody watches," White said, adding: "Those guys aren’t my competition."
Paul reposted the clip, captioning it: "Numbers don’t lie. Dana does."
MVP MMA will be co-led by Paul and Bidarian, with current PFL CEO John Martin staying on as CEO and board member. Bidarian will separately continue overseeing MVP's boxing operation, which includes a women's division and an ESPN deal, as a standalone business apart from MVP MMA.
Martin previously described PFL as the world's No. 2 global MMA organization, with distribution across 34 broadcast and streaming partners reaching fans in more than 170 countries.
MVP MMA held its debut event on May 16 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, and peaked at 17 million live global viewers, a figure the company says shattered the previous U.S. viewership record for an MMA event. Cyborg has since called out Rousey for a super-fight following the merger news.
