Over the years, Dana White’s UFC has established a dominant presence, effectively creating a monopoly within the MMA landscape. As a result, there are only a handful of promotions like the PFL that can compete with the UFC. Recently, PFL’s founder Donn Davis shared insights regarding the discussions surrounding the upcoming broadcasting rights negotiations for the UFC.
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is a rising MMA promotion founded by Donn Davis in 2017. It has even attracted several of the world’s top fighters to compete in its leagues. As a result, Davis believes that Dana White’s UFC will find it challenging to secure a record-breaking broadcasting rights deal, even after a series of outstanding pay-per-view events this year.
UFC is gonna have five big offers. It’s gonna be $8 billion over 10 years… Their (UFC) entire package would be $800 million a year… So, the PFL come along in January 2026 and some of those media companies will say $8 billion was too much for me…
Donn Davis via Front Office Sports
The UFC and Dana White are approaching a challenging period. Their current broadcast deal with ESPN will expire at the end of 2025. During this partnership, which has been highly successful, the UFC has consistently increased its standing since 2019. However, rival promoter Donn Davis believes the UFC may have to accept an average deal in their next broadcasting agreement because of PFL.
Donn Davis believes UFC will get $8B over 10 years in their next deal.pic.twitter.com/Y5E1icAORS
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) October 17, 2024
Dana White and Donn Davis have frequently clashed over their rivalry. The UFC CEO has made it clear that he doesn’t appreciate having a competitor in the MMA community. Following the merger of PFL and Bellator, White’s animosity toward Davis’ promotion has further intensified. Recently, this rivalry took an intriguing turn when Davis issued a bold challenge to the UFC CEO.
The UFC has long been at the forefront of the mixed martial arts community. Although the promotion faced challenges in its early days, it has since stabilized and now serves as a home for some of the world’s top fighters, such as Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, and Alex Pereira. Similarly, the PFL believes they are on the right path. In fact, the organization will host one of its biggest events this coming weekend.
The fight card will showcase former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. According to Davis, this event can potentially break several UFC records. Additionally, the PFL founder recently talked about a possible matchup featuring the top five fighters from the UFC against the top five fighters from the PFL.
If it was five fights, we [PFL] pick five, they [UFC] pick five, [then] let me tell you. They wouldn’t do it, because, we win half and they win half [the fights]. That’s why Dana would never do that. He knows that and we know that.
Donn Davis at a recent press conference
Donn Davis says the UFC “would never” put their five best fighters against the PFL’s five best fighters:
“We have equal fighter talent … We’d win half and they’d win half. That’s why ‘#DanaScared‘ would never do that.” pic.twitter.com/mskYrHaMlN
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) October 17, 2024
Although Donn Davis’ idea is intriguing, Dana White has yet to respond. Given their history of conflict, the UFC CEO may not be interested in engaging with it. All throughout the UFC history, they have only co-promoted when it favored them. As such, PFL will continue to dish out challenges that the UFC will ignore.
