The Professional Fighters League is the fastest growing company in MMA and the second biggest MMA company in the world, right behind the UFC. The league was created in 2018 when founder Donn Davis realized how disproportionate the fan base was "I saw 650 million MMA fans around the world. That's the third biggest fan base...UFC is the only premium provider. So most underserved fan base in the world of sport" said Davis.
But the 5-year old league isn't trying to one up UFC "We're not here to beat UFC. We're here to be the second big company, the co-leader in MMA for those 650 million fans."
Full Video Transcript Below:
J.D. DURKIN: So talk to me about from the beginning as much as you can. What went into building this massive business in this wildly successful fighting empire that you've been able to get off the ground?
DONN DAVIS: I started the PFL the day UFC sold. I saw three things that day, and I was not an MMA fan, but I saw 650 million MMA fans around the world. That's the third biggest fan base, only trail soccer and basketball. I had no idea. I think it's a niche sport because 85% of those are not in the U.S. Big global sport. Second thing I saw 40 UFC events. UFC is the only premium provider, but there's 5,000 basketball games, $3,000 soccer matches. So most underserved fan base in the world of sport. And number three, heck, it wasn't even a sport yet. It's a great entertainment product.
We're a match maker, whether it's Don King in boxing or Dana White in MMA. You, J.D. against me, Don? Because the promoter says so. That's not a sport. We all want LeBron to be in the playoffs every year, but some years. He's not good enough. Adam Silver is a commissioner. Can't just put him in there, but that is what they do in MMA or that is what they do in boxing. So I said, I'm going to make it a meritocracy. Transparency, win in advance, lose and go home. So that's the foundations of the PFL. We're not here to beat UFC. We're here to be the second big company, the co-leader in MMA for those 650 million fans.
J.D. DURKIN: You are no stranger to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. You've been in the world of entrepreneurship going back many decades. How does that inform a bit of your unique background that you're able to take to the position you have now with the PFL?
DONN DAVIS: Look, I appreciate the question. I like to not reinvent the wheel. What is working in other sports, in other industries? And we brought that to PFL. So when you look at our video product, it's really gamified. So 35 years old is the average viewer of MMA. Most of them are 18 to 35. So they like a really interesting, gamified short, high action experience. So punch impact, you can see it on the screen, real time gambling. You can see it on the screen with PFL, the smart cage data and technology. You can see what's going on with PFL. So think of it as like we brought the yellow line from football or the strike zone from baseball to MMA. So if you're a sports fan. But not an MMA fan, you now know what's going on inside the cage. So we borrowed that from esports, if you will. We borrowed that from gaming, if you will, to make MMA more interesting to the casual fan. So those are the kind of things, having invested and built other types of companies, I say, number one, what's the most interesting thing we could do to serve this fan with this product? And that's what we've done at PFL.
