A global challenger for the UFC?

The Professional Fighters League is supposedly in talks to buy MMA organisation Bellator from Paramount, in a deal that could value the competitor at $500M, per Front Office Sports.

It’s the latest move in a series of aggressive expansion steps from the PFL, which was founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Donn Davis and intends to rival the UFC as the pre-eminent promotion in MMA in the coming years.

Why is this significant?

Mixed martial arts is one of the world’s fastest growing sports, and one that – with its big KOs and fighter rivalries – is made for the social media age.

But despite the sport’s popularity, no-one has really come close to challenging the long-standing MMA duopoly. The UFC dominates fighters and viewers in Europe and the Americas, whilst ONE Championship dominates Asia.

Critics argue that this lack of competition has meant UFC can underpay its fighters and deny them control over their own commercial deals.

And Davis believes the sport is ripe for disruption.

PFL power moves

The PFL is taking a different approach, which Davis describes as “Fighter first. Fan focused.”

Some of the features of the PFL include:

• A season-long league format, which guarantees fighters a minimum number of fights per year;

• A more global approach, with regional championships such as PFL Europe, PFL Africa, and PFL Middle East with others set to follow;

• Bigger purses for fighters –

  • It’s reported that the PFL plans to share 50% of PPV receipts with fighters, compared with the UFC’s roughly 20% (if they get any at all);

  • In November 24th’s PFL World Championships, six $1 million prize purses will be up for grabs - larger than all but a handful of historical UFC fights.

The promotion has also splashed out to recruit some big names to its roster, such as former UFC champion Francis Ngannou and Youtuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

Earlier this month, at PFL Paris, former UFC fighter Cedric Doumbe knocked out Jordan Zebo in 9 seconds. Kylian Mbappé was amongst the spectators and PFL Paris trended number 1 in Europe on X.

…Oh, and did we mention that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment fund has invested at least $100 million in the league?

Where does this all lead?

Donn Davis – who made early stage investments in Sportradar and DraftKings – has not shied away from drawing attention to the league with bold and brash public statements.

“MMA fans are underserved… There are 600 million MMA fans and UFC provides only 40 events a year” Davis said in an interview with Al Jazeera earlier this year.

And with initiatives such as PFL Africa, PFL Middle East, as well as signing up Youtube stars such as Jake Paul, it looks as if PFL are looking beyond the traditional UFC heartlands to build up their support.

“20 years from now, one of India or China will be the number one MMA-consuming nation” Davis told Al Jazeera.

Right now, UFC is strong in none of the above.

🤷🏼‍♂️ On the other hand…

UFC chief Dana White thinks PFL is “burning cash” and described their strategy as “making no sense to me".”

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What else happened in sports this week?

• 😩 Crash, bang, broke: After several weeks of watching match-ups as France 96-Namibia 0 and England 71-Chile 0, the tournament threw up some real bangers this weekend. But as exciting as the sport’s showcase event is, many of its domestic leagues are struggling to survive. England’s top flight kicked off this weekend, despite most of its big stars being occupied elsewhere. Three of the league’s clubs have gone out of business since September 2022, as well as last season’s second tier champions. Many more clubs stand on the brink.

• 🤦🏻‍♂️ Manchester not-so-United: Qatar's Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani has refused to increase his $6Bn bid for Manchester United, leaving the door open for Sir Jim Ratcliffe to purchase a 25% stake in the club. The Ratcliffe bid wants to take control of the footballing operations and may work up to a full takeover in the future, but in the meantime it’s unlikely fans will be convinced by the move, which still leaves the Glazers with a majority stake. The Glazers, like many American investors, still see European football clubs rising significantly in value over the never few years. Many fans, on the other hands, just want an oil-rich sugar daddy to call their own.

• 🏌🏼‍♂️You only LIV once: After all the hoopla in June over the PGA-LIV merger, it might not even happen in the end. Whilst talks are still ongoing, PGA have opened discussions with other investors, including Endeavor Sports Group, which owns WWE and UFC, and Fenway Sports Group. New parties may invest alongside the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, or even replace it altogether. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s short-form TGL league may end up being more popular than whatever the PGA eventually ends up as.

• 🥊 Punch and Jury: Whilst the bout itself may prove to be an expensive blowout, TNT Sports has released a pretty epic hype vid for the Fury-Ngannou boxing match, which happens on 28th October in Riyadh. Not to worry - those who prefer their boxing to be close-fought, competitive affairs, Tyson Fury’s younger brother Tommy beat Youtuber KSI on Saturday night after a controversial majority decision.

• 🦗 Crickets… The Cricket World Cup is also underway, although many have derided what appear to be mostly empty stadiums. Disney have taken to streaming the matches for free in an attempt to win back Indian subscribers, but despite cricket being the world’s second most popular sport, broadcasting it has so far proven to be a money-losing venture.

• 🏟 From Ghana to the world: Renouned Ghana-born talent Academy Right to Dream this week unveiled their new state-of-the-art training complex in Egypt. It’s the third training academy for the group, after similar facilities in Ghana and Denmark. A fourth complex in San Diego is also under development.

• 🏎 Pole position – Apple is apparently weighing up a $2 billion offer for the exclusive global broadcasting rights for Formula 1, as it looks to expand its reach into the sports broadcasting market.

And, in our obligatory updates on the World of Sport according to Saudi Arabia:

• 🇸🇦 Thy Kingdom come… Saudi Arabia continued in their unstoppable quest for domination of world sport, with the Kingdom’s tourism authority announcing sponsorship deals with the Asian Football Confederation and the continental African Football League. Co-incidentally, both the African and Asian football confederations have prematurely terminated major commercial agreements (with FMA and BeIn respectively) in recent weeks…

• 🫘 Ain’t worth beans? On the domestic front, the Saudi Pro League continues to rack up new sponsors. The league has closed almost $100,000,000 in annual broadcast rights income and now has an official Coffee Chain Partner.