Professional Fighters League CEO John Martin admits that
Most Valuable Promotions did better than his organization in
some aspects in its first MMA show.
MVP hosted its
first MMA card this past May featuring stars like Francis
Ngannou and Ronda
Rousey. Martin admits that MVP did better than the PFL in
reeling in casual fans. Martin believes MVP co-founder Jake Paul’s
massive popularity played a pivotal role in bringing in casual
fans. Martin also lauded MVP CEO Nakisa Bidarian for building the
brand.
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Martin claims he was wishing MVP success for its first event, as he
believes it would boost the growth of the sport as a whole. Martin
is open to collaborating with MVP in the future. However, Martin
clarifies that it won’t come at the cost of PFL fighters being used
to build some other brand.
Bringing in the Casuals
“I know Nakisa, I have spoken to him many number of times… I was
wishing them well and hoping that they succeeded on May 16,” Martin
told Home of Fight. “Because I do think that we’re
all trying to grow a sport. And what MVP has done, honestly better
than PFL, is bringing in casual fans. And that’s Jake Paul as
a really well known social media influencer for a really long time,
and now a true boxing star. And Nakisa’s done a wonderful job
building that promotion. And we’ve talked about what we might be
able to do together. We also have a fight-share agreement with
Rizin. And I’m open to things like that. But what we won’t do is,
share our fighters to build somebody else’s promotion. It’s gotta
be reciprocal.”