Jake Paul-led MVP grows MMA footprint with acquisition of PFL’s roster

Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) is merging with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) to create a new mixed martial arts company that will operate under the MVP banner, the Jake Paul-led promotion announced Thursday.

MVP, which launched in 2021 and spent its first five years primarily focused on boxing promotion, hosted its first MMA event in May. The event streamed on Netflix and was headlined by Ronda Rousey’s return to the sport after nearly a decade away. After the event, MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian was noncommittal about the promotion’s future in the sport, but Thursday’s announcement indicates it aims to challenge the UFC’s supremacy.

“We started MVP to disrupt a broken model. We wanted to give fighters fair pay and a bigger, modernized stage to become global superstars,” Paul said in a statement. “Joining forces with PFL accelerates that vision by a decade.”

The PFL was launched in 2018 and was boosted after it struck a broadcast deal with ESPN in 2019. After the PFL acquired Bellator in 2023, its roster has grown to hundreds of fighters, who compete on either the main roster or in regional leagues. The PFL’s most famous signing was Francis Ngannou, who left the UFC as reigning heavyweight champion to sign a multi-fight deal with the PFL in 2023, allowing him to compete in other sports, such as boxing.

Ngannou, however, appeared in just one MMA fight with the PFL, and his absence shined a light on the PFL’s dwindling appeal. In March, the PFL announced that Ngannou was released from his contract, and in May he returned to MMA to compete on MVP’s card.

MVP’s most popular events have been Paul’s bout with Mike Tyson in 2024 and its co-promotion of the Amanda Serrano-Katie Taylor trilogy. In recent years, the promotion has largely dominated the women’s boxing space, signing champion stars such as Serrano, Alycia Baumgardner, Caroline Dubois and Holly Holm.

Before MVP’s May MMA event, Bidarian told The Athletic that MVP’s venture into MMA was entirely based around Rousey’s return. In turn, Rousey told Bidarian at the time, “I want to be your Dana White.”

“I said to Ronda, ‘I’m not (former UFC CEO) Lorenzo Fertitta. I can’t walk a mile in his shoes, but Jake and I are disruptors. And what you’re talking about is disruptive,’ ” Bidarian recounted. “And while we’ll never replicate or replace the UFC in the next few years, we certainly can provide a product and a platform for athletes that’s unique, interesting and fighter-first.”