Jake Paul’s MVP Merges With PFL as MMA Rebrand Confirmed
Most Valuable Promotions and the Professional Fighters League have merged, creating a combat sports company that will operate under the MVP name.
The deal brings Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian’s boxing promotion together with PFL’s MMA roster, international event infrastructure and media network. PFL will transition to the MVP MMA brand over the coming months, while MVP and MVPW will remain the company’s boxing and women’s boxing properties.
John Martin, PFL’s chief executive, will lead the combined company as CEO and join its board. Paul and Bidarian will serve as co-founders and board members. Bidarian will continue overseeing MVP’s boxing operation and its blockbuster live events, while Paul is set to focus on audience growth, fighter development and the promotion’s public profile.
MVP and PFL Join Forces to Create New Combat Sports Company
PFL’s existing investors, 885 Capital and affiliates of Knighthead Capital Management, will become founding investors in the new entity and have committed additional funding. Financial terms of the merger were not announced. The Wall Street Journal first reported the agreement.
The merger joins two businesses that have taken different routes through combat sports. MVP launched in 2021 and built its profile around Paul, Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor and major Netflix events. Its November 2024 card headlined by Paul and Mike Tyson became Netflix’s most-streamed sporting event, while Taylor’s rematch with Serrano set a U.S. viewership benchmark for a professional women’s sporting event. MVP also staged its first MMA show, MVP MMA 1, in 2025.
PFL, founded in 2018, developed around a season-and-playoff format before adding the PFL Champions Series, PFL Europe and the Bellator roster acquired in late 2023. The company has promoted more than 100 events across 14 countries and says it will run 24 events in 11 countries during 2026. Its MMA group includes more than 300 fighters from over 40 countries, with names including Francis Ngannou, Cris Cyborg, Johnny Eblen, Usman Nurmagomedov and Renan Ferreira.
Under MVP, the combined roster will feature nearly 400400 athletes across boxing and MMA. The company plans five premium live events across both sports in August, an early test of how its boxing and MMA calendars can operate within the same structure.
Distribution is central to the deal. MVP has worked with Netflix, DAZN, ESPN and Sky Sports, while PFL has a network of 34 broadcast and streaming partners across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The companies say that combined reach extends to more than 170 countries.
Martin previously served as chairman and CEO of Turner, where he oversaw Turner Sports, TNT, TBS and CNN, and had earlier been Time Warner’s chief financial officer. His appointment gives the new company an executive with major media-rights and sports programming experience.
MVP is framing the merger around a fighter-first model, citing pay, exposure and athletes’ ability to develop businesses outside competition. Those claims will face close attention as PFL fighters enter a new brand structure and as the company tries to compete for available talent in a market led by the UFC.
