There’s no question that the UFC is the top promotion in mixed martial arts and has been over the past few decades. That could be challenged in the future with news of the MVP/PFL merger. Under a consolidated banner of MVP MMA, the new partnership will create a threat to the Ultimate Fighting Championship with a business strategy that can reshape combat sports.
PFL Brings A Strong Foundation To MVP
The Professional Fighters League built itself into a reputable MMA promotion. Acquiring rival Bellator allowed them to significantly upgrade their roster, adding champions and contenders across multiple weight classes. This provided better talent to showcase in their unique format for events.
Differing from the UFC, PFL used a points-based regular season with a playoff format and now single-elimination tournaments to crown champions. The new MVP promotion could utilize these as a way to appeal to fight fans. Every fight in these structures has immediate stakes and a clearer path to titles, with potential storylines to build upon.
MVP/PFL Merger Will Create A Business Model Built Around Fighters
One of MVP’s biggest selling points when they were founded was fairly compensating fighters and providing more branding opportunities for them. They made their debut with the MVP MMA 1: Rousey Vs Carano event that showcased big-name combatants making returns to the octagon.
The UFC has a longstanding history of not paying talent well, as fighters only receive a small share of revenue from pay-per-views. The new iteration of MVP MMA will have the financial power to invest in long-term growth and stage major events. That will create more competition for top talent looking to build a lucrative career.
The new landmark merger will also put Jake Paul in charge of PFL, and he knows how to create mainstream attention. Through MVP, he has helped turn his boxing events into major entertainment spectacles. The promotion will have a huge social media presence that could turn MMA fighters into personalities who attract more casual fans and celebrities to the sport.
Financial Resources To Grow
The merger combines the MMA infrastructure of PFL with MVP’s promotional business. PFL never had a prominent broadcast partner to get enough viewership for its product. MVP has Netflix as its main platform, which will provide bigger audiences for every event they put on.
What separates the UFC from any other promotion is its financial power to establish a global brand. They can put resources into hosting events in different parts of the world and more events weekly to stay in the spotlight. They have also leveraged their success into more viewing content and bigger brand/media deals.
PFL will now have the same financial backing under the merger and can begin to expand its reach. They could choose to run more events like the UFC or focus on creating more of a spectacle for special occasions. Having resources to consistently invest in the product gives the MVP merger a strong chance of competing against its MMA rival long-term.
A Real Threat Emerging
PFL hopes to finalize the merger with MVP by January of next year. Dana White might not feel threatened, but the fact that combat sports will have another well-funded competitor is worth paying attention to. MVP built its identity around entertainment and athlete crossover star power to become a recognizable name. With PFL’s strong foundation to build upon, the company has all the tools to challenge the UFC to become a powerful entity in MMA.
