PFL CEO praises MVP's casual-fan pull and opens door to reciprocal cross-promotion

Professional Fighters League CEO John Martin has publicly credited Most Valuable Promotions with outperforming his own organisation in one key area after MVP’s debut MMA card in May, while signalling he is open to a cross-promotional arrangement — on strictly reciprocal terms.

MVP’s first MMA show, held in May, featured high-profile names including Francis Ngannou and Ronda Rousey. Speaking to Home of Fight, Martin conceded that the event succeeded where PFL has struggled: drawing in casual fans. He attributed that success largely to MVP co-founder Jake Paul, whose background as a social media personality and emergence as a legitimate boxing name gave the promotion an unusually wide reach beyond the core MMA audience.

“What MVP has done, honestly better than PFL, is bringing in casual fans,” Martin said. “And that’s Jake Paul as a really well known social media influencer for a really long time, and now a true boxing star.”

Martin also praised MVP CEO Nakisa Bidarian directly, saying he had “done a wonderful job building that promotion” — a notable acknowledgement from the head of a competing organisation.

Despite the competitive landscape, Martin said he had been actively rooting for MVP’s debut to go well, framing rival promotions’ growth as good for MMA overall. “I was wishing them well and hoping that they succeeded on May 16,” he said. “Because I do think that we’re all trying to grow a sport.”

On the question of future collaboration, Martin confirmed that talks have taken place and that he is open to a formal arrangement, pointing to PFL’s existing fight-share agreement with Japanese promotion Rizin as a model. However, he drew a firm line around fighter welfare and brand equity.

“We’ve talked about what we might be able to do together… 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,” Martin said.

The comments suggest a potential partnership between two of MMA’s more ambitious non-UFC promotions remains a live possibility, though any deal would need to satisfy PFL’s condition that its roster is not simply used as a supporting cast for MVP’s continued rise.