# Dana White Dismisses MVP-PFL Merger: 'Nobody Watches' MVP or PFL

**By Rosa Delgado**  \nPublished August 2, 2026  \nUpdated September 9, 2026

> UFC CEO Dana White offered a characteristically sharp and dismissive reaction to the merger of Most Valuable Promotions and the Professional Fighters League, claiming the combined company won't sell tickets or draw viewers.

When news broke on July 30, 2026, that Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) and the Professional Fighters League (PFL) were officially joining forces under a unified MVP MMA banner, the combat sports landscape braced for a seismic shift. Jake Paul, Nakisa Bidarian, and incoming CEO John Martin framed the coalition as a decade-accelerating disruption to a broken MMA model, anchored by nearly 400 combined athletes and a massive global footprint. UFC CEO Dana White, however, greeted the blockbuster union with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Speaking to Oscar Willis of *The Mac Life* during fight week ahead of UFC Belgrade, White made it abundantly clear that he does not view the newly formed powerhouse as a threat to his promotion's multi-billion-dollar dominance.

“I don’t know anything about what they’re doing,” White said in the interview. “It probably makes sense when sh*t isn’t working for anybody, we should all probably get together. Let’s take two organizations that don’t sell tickets and nobody watches and let’s merge them together and make a bigger company that won’t sell tickets and nobody will watch.”

While White acknowledged that his remarks carried some degree of levity, his underlying dismissal of the combat sports ecosystem outside the Octagon remained absolute. Drawing a sharp line between his enterprise and the rest of the industry, White asserted that the UFC has long since outgrown direct MMA comparisons.

“I’ve said this 100 times and I’m f*cking around, but I’ve said this 100 times: I don’t look at any of those guys as our competition,” White said. “We’re in a whole other f*cking stratosphere now. I mean, I’m competing with all the majors. Those guys aren’t my competition so good luck to them all. I wish them all the best.”

The structural framework of the newly merged entity targets full brand integration by January 1, 2027. Under the agreement, the promotion will blend MVP’s high-profile boxing promotional machine with the PFL’s sprawling international league infrastructure, which spans more than 300 fighters across over 40 countries. Paul and Bidarian are set to serve as co-founders and members of the board of directors, while John Martin transitions from his role as PFL CEO to lead the combined company.

The merger arrives on the heels of MVP’s high-profile foray into mixed martial arts in May 2026. That event, held at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, featured legendary crossover bouts including Ronda Rousey submitting Gina Carano in 17 seconds, drawing a reported 15,795 tickets and pulling in substantial viewership numbers on Netflix. Paul has since used the momentum of the merger to pitch fighters on completing their current contracts and jumping to the new organization, explicitly targeting the UFC's talent monopoly.

Despite those metrics, White's skepticism mirrors the dismissive stance he took when the PFL acquired Bellator MMA in late 2023. It also highlights a persistent hurdle facing the newly minted MVP MMA: while the promotion has proved capable of generating massive one-off event spectacles and digital eyeballs through partners like Netflix, ESPN, and Sky Sports, it has yet to secure a permanent, long-term broadcasting home for its 2027 calendar.

As the UFC continues to operate at a massive scale—bolstered by major international expansions like its stop in Serbia and a multi-billion-dollar content partnership with Paramount+—the onus falls on Paul, Bidarian, and Martin to prove that a fusion of boxing pageantry and league-format MMA can translate intermittent digital attention into sustained box office and television traction.

## Sources

- [middleeasy.com](https://middleeasy.com/mma-news/dana-white-mvp-pfl-merger-anthony-smith-case-nobody-watch/) — original
- [Fernando Quiles Jr.](https://www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/ufc/dana-white-brushes-off-mvp-pfl-merger-and-claims-nobody-will-watch-in-dismissive-reaction-those-guys-arent-my-competition/) — original
- [sportbible.com](https://www.sportbible.com/ufc/dana-white-response-jake-paul-claim-mvp-deak-861396-20260801) — original
- [Kyle Dimond](https://bloodyelbow.com/2026/07/31/dana-white-says-jake-pauls-mvp-mma-isnt-competition-to-the-ufc-in-critical-dismissal-of-pfl-merger/) — original
- [ringside24.com](https://ringside24.com/en/news/mma/256346-dana-white-mocks-pfl-mvp-merger-calls-it-a-tie-up-between-two-companies-nobody-cares-about) — original
- [mmajunkie.usatoday.com](https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/story/sports/ufc/2026/07/31/dana-white-reaction-opinion-jake-paul-mvp-pfl-merger-no-threat-to-ufc-good-luck-mma-boxing-promotion/91123422007/) — original
- [Jesse Holland Fri, July 31, 2026 at 6:23 PM UTC · 2 min read](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/disinterested-dana-white-reacts-mvp-182340946.html) — original