Within his first few weeks on the job, Martin found himself on stage standing between Usman Nurmagomedov<\/a> and Paul Hughes<\/a> ahead of the biggest rematch of the year in Dubai. And this is just the beginning, with names like Jake Paul<\/a> and Francis Ngannou<\/a> both on tap for fights under his banner.<\/p>\n Who is PFL CEO John Martin? All you need to know about new MMA boss<\/p>\n Before making his move into the MMA world, John Martin made his name in the television business. A former Turner CEO and Time Warner CFO, the American businessman even tried to buy the UFC on two different occasions.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw UFC 1 and was blown away,\u201d he told Bloody Elbow ahead of PFL in Dubai on Friday night. \u201cI was always passionate about Mixed Martial Arts. I spent 30 years at Time Warner and while I was there I tried unsuccessfully to get my company to acquire the UFC twice in 2008 and 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth times for various reasons it didn\u2019t work out, but I\u2019ve always watched with a lot of interest because I always saw the potential of MMA on a global basis.\u201d<\/p>\n During his time with Time Warner, media reports regarding Martin\u2019s net worth fluctuated. One New York Post column cited sources claiming he was worth as much as $60million, although even within their own copy that was disputed as being much lower, and other sources list him closer to $25million.<\/p>\n Martin left Time Warner in 2018 when the company was sold to AT&T for a whopping $85.4billion, and moved into investing in different companies. It was in that endeavour that he met a board member of PFL, who told him to get in touch with co-founder Donn Davis.<\/p>\n \u201cI met with Donn several times and after about the third meeting he asked if I would consider coming to lead the company,\u201d he continued. \u201cI thought about it for a while because I wanted to make sure how much opportunity I thought PFL had to exploit the global opportunities, which are very, very real.<\/p>\n \u201cI was pleasantly surprised when I looked at where the company is after seven years, a lot has been done in a positive way. There\u2019s a terrific fighter roster, there\u2019s a global platform and PFL has about 26 media partners distributing across the world as well as five revenue stream capabilities that are already done.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re ready to go, and that\u2019s a competitive situation that\u2019s not easy to replicate in this day and age. So my skills from working with big companies and really focusing on how to take revenue streams and build on them quickly make me the right person to lead PFL. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have to drive all the revenue streams as we try to engage more and more fans around the world. I see a huge amount of opportunity, strong capabilities that PFL has and seeing its next stages in its maturity cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n PFL CEO John Martin keen to stage Francis Ngannou comeback and Jake Paul vs Oleksandr Usyk<\/p>\n While he kicks off his tenure with a barn burner on Friday night in Dubai, the big events are just starting for Martin\u2019s PFL. The promotion enter negotiations next year for US broadcast rights, and have ace cards up their sleeves including Francis Ngannou and Jake Paul.<\/p>\n
![\"Jake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Jake-Paul-Usyk-face-off-1024x559.png\")
Credit: TalkSport Boxing\/YouTube<\/p>\n