Nakisa Bidarian has had a busy 36 hours.
First he finalised a deal for Jake Paul, his business partner and friend, to fight two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Then he flew from Atlanta in the United States to London, on the red-eye, and headed straight to Sky Sports’ studios to announce the fight live on UK television.
Now he is sitting in a meeting room at Netflix’s London office, explaining it all to The Athletic.
“I did not want this fight to happen,” says the 47-year-old chief executive of Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), who was born in Iran but raised in the UK, U.S. and Canada after his family fled the Gulf country in the 1980s during its war with neighbor Iraq.
It was in March this year that Paul, the American YouTuber-turned-boxer, first stated that he wanted to step into the ring with British 2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Joshua, earmarking it as a fight he wanted to happen in 2026.
“And everyone laughed,” recalls Bidarian.
But despite the sizeable difference between the two in both physical size and level of boxing experience, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn did not rule it out as an option. “We’d do it for the banter”, he said in an interview with broadcaster DAZN.
Joshua’s camp preferred the fight to be this year if it was going to happen, with 2026 earmarked as when he would finally step into the ring against fellow British heavyweight, and ex-world champion, Tyson Fury. But MVP had other plans for the end of 2025, lining up America’s current World Boxing Association lightweight champion Gervonta Davis — “a bigger star in the U.S. than Joshua,” according to Bidarian — to face Paul this month.
However, just over a week before that fight was due to take place on November 14, MVP announced it was cancelling the show after a civil lawsuit was filed against Davis in an alleged domestic incident.
Bidarian and Paul wrote down the names of possible replacements. Netflix did the same. In the end, the agreed list of potential opponents was pretty short. “AJ (Joshua) was one of them,” says Bidarian. “(Terence) Crawford another.”
Unbeaten, three-weight undisputed world champion Crawford, another American, and his team were, says Bidarian, very open to it, but “not in a timeline and structure that would have made it possible for 2025”.
So, Paul picked up his phone and sent Joshua a direct message on Instagram: “I want to do it now.”
“Joshua said, ‘I’m ready, let’s do it’,” says Bidarian, and so began the negotiations with Joshua’s promoters, Matchroom, that ended with Monday’s official announcement that Paul versus Joshua — a fight many believed would never actually happen — is taking place in Miami, Florida, on December 19.
Bidarian insists that this is actually an “easier, albeit more dangerous” fight for Paul than the planned one against Davis, who is around half Joshua’s weight and a foot shorter. “Davis is small, extremely fast, extremely skilled, extremely precise, and has knockout power. AJ is big, long, strong. But not as active, not as mobile, not as quick. That gives Jake a chance to show (up) better, while avoiding getting caught cleanly — in any heavyweight fight, you have to avoid that.”
Why then did Bidarian initially not want this fight to happen?
“Because Jake is a heavy underdog here. Looking at Jake’s career, we’ve matched him quite evenly every time out. If you look at most of Joshua’s fights before (losing in September 2024 to Daniel) Dubois; very lopsided odds, because he was being put in there to win. That’s what boxing is most of the time. Jake’s career hasn’t been that, but this is the first time he’s going in as a massive underdog, and that obviously is concerning for me.”
Bidarian at a promotional event for the Paul-Davis fight, which was eventually cancelled (Sarah Stier/Getty Images for Netflix)
Concerning for many is the physical risk to Paul in facing a fighter who, in 28 wins as a professional, has knocked out all but three of his opponents.
Last year, Joshua took on another boxing novice in former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, a man known for his toughness and destructive power in the octagon. That one ended violently in the second round when Joshua unleashed a monstrous right hand that knocked Ngannou out cold.
During our interview, Bidarian says Paul is “like a son” to him, a dear friend, someone he cares about a lot. But, he insists, he has no worries about Paul’s health going into a fight against someone 6ft 6in (198cm) and 250lb (113kg) who has shared a boxing ring with most of the best heavyweights of his generation.
“I just worry about a young man I care about not winning, that’s all,” he says. “I want him to win in every aspect of life. So when we call an audible and, within two weeks, put together a fight that in many ways is bigger than the other fight, there’s a lot of unknowns and a lot of variables that go into it.”
Paul’s only previous fight at heavyweight came against a 58-year-old Mike Tyson last November — the most-streamed sporting event in history, watched by over 108 million people worldwide. It was officially a professional fight, sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, but featured some regulations based on Masters’ Boxing, including the use of two-minute rounds and 14oz gloves.
Tyson landed just 18 punches that night, according to Compubox, and Paul won a unanimous decision after eight rounds. Bidarian, however, says it should not be discounted: “That was still getting in the ring, 12 fights into his career, across from what many people view to be the baddest man on the planet, in front of 70,000 people and holding your composure enough to outclass an older (version) but Mike Tyson all the same. That kind of preparation is very rare for a fighter at Jake’s level.”
The fight against Joshua will also be professional, sanctioned by the Florida Athletic Commission and over eight three-minute rounds with standard 10oz gloves. Joshua will not be allowed to be any more than 245lb — a weight he has not been under since two fights against current undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022. There will be no rehydration clause, meaning no restriction on how much weight the Englishman can put on between the weigh-in and fight night.
Usyk was 221lb when he fought Joshua, points out Bidarian, who says Paul “walks around at 210lb, but when he fought Tyson, he was 228lb”.
Once Joshua and Paul had swapped messages agreeing to fight, one of the main hurdles left was Matchroom’s exclusive deal with DAZN and Paul’s Netflix affiliation. “The main stumbling block is always money and terms,” says Bidarian, “but of course, part of that money was used to satisfy their obligations to DAZN.”
Bidarian wouldn’t disclose numbers, but believes agreement was reached partly due to the belief this will be “easy work” for Joshua: “Big platform, great re-entrance for Joshua. Knock out Jake Paul, in their mind, and get on with plans for 2026… Jake’s job is to foil those plans.”
Anthony Joshua showed no mercy to Francis Ngannou last year (Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images)
Said plans were laid out last weekend by Turki Al-Sheikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, one of the most powerful figures in the sport. At ringside in London on Saturday night for the fight between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn, Al-Sheikh said Joshua would fight in Saudi Arabia in February next year, followed by a big fight in London in the September (assumed by many to be the one against Fury).
Al-Sheikh has done business with most within boxing over the past four years, but not yet with MVP. Bidarian says there have been discussions, including a meeting with Al-Sheikh in July this year and that “if unique opportunities come out that make sense to diverge from that path where we’re not in control, we’ll take those opportunities”.
During that meeting in July, Al-Sheikh raised the subject of Paul versus Joshua and said it was something he could make happen. In September, the Saudis made an offer for the pair to fight in the Gulf state but when Bidarian and Al-Sheikh discussed it over the phone, the MVP CEO turned the idea down.
“It just didn’t make sense,” he says, “I want the biggest fights in the world to happen in the UK and the U.S. I think it’s great to take premium sports products to different parts of the world, to pollinate its growth,” he says, pointing to the NFL games that take place in Europe each year and the NBA’s decision to play three regular-season matches this season in Mexico, Germany and England respectively, “but no one’s shifting the majority of their schedule to China or to Mexico.
“Whenever possible, my belief is the biggest fights should happen in the countries where the athletes are from. That’s great for the building of the sport, for the fans, for the media, and for increasing the fanship to move away from being niche.”
Was there ever a discussion about holding Paul-Joshua in the UK, then? Bidarian says not, because of his determination that it would be a professional fight and his knowledge that there would be “lots of hurdles for the British Boxing Board of Control to agree to that here”.
Speaking on The Sports Agents podcast about rumours of the fight last week, the board’s general secretary Robert Smith said he was “totally against it” happening and that he would “find it extremely surprising if the board agreed for that to happen in this country. I can’t see it happening here”.
Bidarian’s counter to that is Paul’s fight against Joshua is actually more “sanctionable” than many of the bouts which do take place in rings up and down the UK.
He points to Joshua’s 10th fight as a professional, against former British champion and European title challenger Michael Sprott, arguing that in matching a 25-year-old who’d then knocked out all nine of his pro opponents against a 39-year-old with 22 defeats on his record (12 of them stoppages), the older man was “there to lose”.
“That to me should be less sanctionable than Jake Paul, who is 12-1 (in his 13 fights), younger, has been in there with (Julio Cesar) Chavez Jr, who’s never been knocked out, unlike AJ, versus some of the other stuff that gets sanctioned every single weekend. There’s an athlete in the UK (Jake Pollard), who’s been on multiple (fight) cards, who has over a hundred losses. How is that possible? How is that sanctioned?
“So if anyone has a problem with Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua being sanctioned, they have a much bigger problem with boxing as a whole. It’s just that Jake has a big name, a lot of awareness and notoriety, so people want to focus on him.
“These people are literally there to lose. Jake’s not there to lose, Jake’s there to rewrite history and do what many people think is the unthinkable.”
Bidarian with Tyson and Paul ahead of their fight last year (Cooper Neill/Getty Images for Netflix)
When UFC CEO and president Dana White was asked about Paul taking on Joshua last weekend, he responded: “That’s a f**king bad idea. You know what everyone’s tuning into that for. I think everyone’s finally going to get what they’ve been waiting for.”
Bidarian and White have history.
The MVP co-founder’s career in fight sports started at the UFC, which he joined after meeting the Fertitta brothers — Frank and Lorenzo, then owners of the MMA league. Bidarian knew nothing about the sport — his background was in investment banking — but a chance meeting with the Fertittas when Abu Dhabi (where Bidarian was working for investment firm Mubadala) acquired 10 per cent of the UFC in 2010 led ultimately to him being hired by the latter in 2012.
He rose from chief strategy officer to chief financial officer, overseeing major fighter agreements, including Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor, before playing a central role in the UFC’s $4billion sale to the Endeavor consortium in 2016. Bidarian left the organization shortly afterwards, and says he and White had an “up and down” relationship. “It’s become very clear over the past few years that he’d never really liked me,” he says, referencing “derogatory comments” White has made since.
Bidarian first met Paul in 2019, introduced to him by a friend in the music industry. “He was definitely a different type of young man,” laughs Bidarian. Paul said he wanted to start a fighters’ union and give young up-and-comers opportunities while also rapping, acting and making crazy content. “I was like, ‘Great. Nice meeting you’,” smiles Bidarian, waving a hand in mock dismissal.
Paul had an offer from Hearn at the time for what would be his first professional fight; it was $500,000 and Bidarian agreed to help him get more money, turning it into a $4million payday against English YouTuber AnEsonGib in January 2020. A few months later, Bidarian was called in as executive producer on Tyson’s comeback fight against fellow legend Roy Jones Jr and told the broadcaster, Triller, that it needed Paul on the card to help attract the young demographic.
“I went to Jake, offered him $500,000. He’s like, ‘What?’. I said, ‘Take this, be the star of the night, and I promise you I’ll deliver you eight figures for your next fight’. He was the star of the night; he knocked out an NBAer (Nate Robinson). People laugh at it now, but at the time Jake was the underdog.”
Bidarian secured Paul $11.5million for his next bout, against former wrestler and MMA fighter Ben Askren. He won with a first-round stoppage and realised, says Bidarian, what boxing could do for him. “Of course financially, but that wasn’t the driver. It was the discipline, it was the focus. It was giving him a purpose in life. So he left LA, moved to Puerto Rico, and then we started MVP.”
Their long-term plan, he says, is to become the reference point for Gen Z and Gen Alpha for the sport.
He knows Paul has his “naysayers”. “Never in Jake Paul’s career has there been any stipulation in any fight that hasn’t been publicly disclosed,” he says, referring to the shorter rounds and bigger gloves against Tyson. “But that was agreed to with the commission. That’s it. Every other fight in Jake’s career, there’s never been any secret stipulation.
“One of my favourite things I’m reading today is: ‘AJ is being paid to lose’. AJ, who’s worth £250million or whatever it may be, who’s fought in Saudi Arabia four or five times, who’s done million-plus pay-per-views, is being paid to lose? I mean, it’s pretty ridiculous. The notion of anything not being but on the up-and-up is ridiculous, because we’d go to jail for it.”
Bidarian with Paul ahead of his fight against Tommy Fury in 2023 (Francois Nel/Getty Images)
MVP is already one of the most well-known brands in boxing, according to Bidarian; something it has achieved within four years of entering the sport. And Paul is the “biggest star in it”, he states. “It’s called Jake versus Joshua, not Joshua versus Jake. Jake is the A-side against the UK’s biggest star, right?”
What would it mean then for the future of Paul and MVP should this fight go the way most boxing fans expect, ending brutally and painfully in Joshua’s favor?
“I don’t think it means anything,” insists Bidarian. “Jake lost to Tommy Fury in fight seven and people wrote us off. We came back four months later and did a bigger event in the U.S. with (UFC star) Nate Diaz. Of course, I don’t want that for Jake, as someone who cares about him as a friend (and) as a business partner, but that’s the sport.
“The problem with boxing is too often people view a loss as the end. Joshua is a perfect example. He’s four losses in. Now he’s about to have the biggest event of his career. Is it the biggest in terms of pure competition? Maybe people don’t view it that way. But this is his biggest fight.”
Joshua’s legacy is on the line next month, says Bidarian. “If he loses, his is definitely damaged. But if he knocks out Jake Paul, he will be viewed as the saviour who ended this ‘charade’. I think that’s part of his view. He’ll be idolised as a hero in the boxing community if he’s able to do that.”