{"id":840905,"date":"2026-08-03T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840905\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T01:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T01:38:09","slug":"mvp-head-sees-massive-enterprise-value-in-paying-fighters-50-of-revenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840905\/","title":{"rendered":"MVP head sees \u2018massive enterprise value\u2019 in paying fighters 50% of revenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was big news on the business side of MMA this week as a new merger was revealed<\/a> between the the Professional Fighters League and Most Valuable Promotions that will see the PFL (formerly World Series of Fighting) drop their name and take on the MVP MMA moniker.<\/p>\n

MVP MMA debuted back in May with a big Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano fight that did massive numbers<\/a> and set Jake Paul\u2019s promotion up as a potential disruptor<\/a> within the UFC-dominated mixed martial arts landscape. But if MVP MMA wanted to morph into a proper promotion, where would it draw its fighters from? Enter the PFL, which has the roster but lacks MVP\u2019s ability to create events that move the mainstream needle.<\/p>\n

MVP is best known as Jake Paul\u2019s promotion, but former UFC Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Financial Officer Nakisa Bidarian is the business brains behind the organization. In a new interview with Bloomberg, Bidarian discussed MVP MMA and how being a fighter-first promotion is more than just a talking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started this company five years ago and we\u2019ve been disruptors in the boxing landscape, in the content consumption landscape,\u201d Bidarian said. \u201c[We] brought the first professional live sporting event to Netflix. When we decided to do MMA we always said if it was successful we\u2019re going to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what did more look like? Well, more now looks like we have the benefit of world class infrastructure, world class fighters, and the leadership of [PFL head] John Martin as our CEO of the overall platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus has always been to at least provide 50% of revenue to athletes,\u201d he declared. \u201cSo when we look at the traditional ball and stick sports that achieve those types of revenue share metrics for the athletes. All of those entities have created massive amounts of enterprise value \u2026 If you look at other sports, when athletes get fair share, they\u2019re more invested. They\u2019re more committed, the product is better, and there\u2019s total cohesion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UFC\u2019s revenue share with fighters is pathetic, floating between 13% to 20%, and it\u2019s not going to get any better because any extra percentage that goes to fighters<\/a> is a percentage that isn\u2019t getting to TKO ownership and investors. That\u2019s not the case with MVP, which Bidarian says will stay private for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

MVP MMA has its work cut out for it, as most of the top names in the sport are signed to extremely restrictive contracts with the UFC. Even fighters like Jon Jones who can\u2019t come to terms<\/a> with the UFC for a fight can\u2019t get out of their deals and fight for MVP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe plan to stay private for a long period of time, and we can have financial flexibility that you really can\u2019t as a public entity,\u201d he said. \u201cIn many ways, I wish the UFC would show up tomorrow and say we\u2019re increasing fighter pay to 50%. But guess what? They can\u2019t do that. That will crush their margins, which will crush their enterprise value, which will crush their personal net worth. We have the ability to be aggressive in how we structure our deals and go after the best talent in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bidarian has years of UFC experience to draw on, as well as a viral star in Jake Paul to build tentpole events around. He now has the PFL\u2019s infrastructure as well, which honestly could be more of a hindrance than help. We\u2019ll see how things go when MVP and PFL officially merge at the start of 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was big news on the business side of MMA this week as a new merger was revealed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85],"class_list":["post-840905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}