MMA Q&A with PFL founder and chairman Donn Davis
Davis discusses the MMA landscape, bringing the Bellator Champions Series to San Diego in September, and what's next for Cris Cyborg, Aaron Pico and A.J. McKee
Knowing three is a crowd, Donn Davis made it all about two being company – his company.
Six months ago, the Professional Fighters League founder and chairman oversaw the acquisition of Bellator MMA, fortifying his burgeoning combat sports organization with an influx of top-quality fighters and further securing its place in the sport. While many appear eager to compare PFL with the UFC, Davis is quick to point out that it’s not so much about competing with the stalwart MMA standard bearer as it is growing the sport and appeasing its fans.
“This is not about PFL versus UFC. This is not about choosing one or the other. It’s not about who’s going to win,” Davis said in a recent interview with the Southern California News Group. “This is a story about the rise of PFL. And the markets now being a duopoly with two winning companies: PFL and UFC.”
Entering its sixth year and armed with an ESPN deal, PFL not only added a deep and talented Bellator roster in November, it offered an intriguing inaugural event – PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions – in February. PFL also essentially doubled its distribution by striking a streaming deal with Max in March for its new Bellator Champions Series, featuring eight events with two title fights planned for each card.
“We’re always focused about a tapestry of distribution,” Davis said. “Multiple places, all premium, all free that you can see PFL.”
With the second Bellator Champions Series set for Friday in Paris, the Southern California News Group spoke with Davis about PFL and Bellator, along with some notable fighters with local connections – Huntington Beach’s Cris Cyborg, former St. John Bosco High wrestling star Aaron Pico and Long Beach’s A.J. McKee – and the series making its United States debut Sept. 7 at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
Responses have been condensed and lightly edited for concision and clarity.
SCNG: How do you see the MMA landscape right now?
DAVIS: From the very, very beginning of starting PFL, I’ve always said the MMA market is big enough for two big winning companies. UFC was the first winner, and they’re clearly still the number one company. But PFL is now the second winner. And to be the second winning company, when you look at the dynamics of the market – fighters, fans and media distribution – those are the three important constituents of any sports league. Fighters, fans and media companies, all three of them wanted a second MMA company. There was more fighters than UFC can handle on a premium level. There’s more fan demand for premium MMA. UFC only gives them 50 events a year and there’s 650 million fans. And media distribution wanted more premium MMA … and we fulfilled that need and very quickly. Five years, but that’s very quick.
SCNG: It’s been roughly six months since PFL acquired Bellator MMA. Where’s the organization at right now?
DAVIS: Great question. The big reason we acquired Bellator was for the athlete talent. There has never been a second sports league that had near equal talent. It’s generally a minor-league sports league. It’s always a second-rate product. And that’s always been true until the PFL came along. And we were able to put together our talent with the Bellator talent. I’ll give you two quick metrics, which are pretty astounding. There’s only one organization writing about MMA that ranks all fighters independently. That’s Fight Matrix rankings. Thirty percent of our combined roster this year is ranked in the top 25 in the world. The exact same percentage of the UFC roster this year, 30% of their roster, is top 25 ranked. Now I recognize that the UFC brand is stronger. They’ve been around 30 years, we’ve been around six years. But fighter quality is now equal in terms of top 25 ranked, same percentage, 30% to 30%. And fact number two, is we’re now able to produce 25 events on four continents a year. We have enough product. We couldn’t expand unless we had enough talent to expand. And we now have enough talent to be able to do 25 events a year.
SCNG: As you know, Donn, Southern California, great base for MMA. Three fighters that we specifically cover are with your organization. At the top of the heap arguably is Bellator women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. We know Cyborg signed a four-fight deal before Bellator sold and still has three fights left on her deal. She’s 38 She’s not getting any younger. Why has Cyborg not defended her Bellator belt yet?
DAVIS: We’ve been very consistent saying she’s, if not the best, one of the three best of all time in female MMA. No doubt about it. And as such, she deserves, one, great matchups to cement her legacy, and two, the biggest stage to showcase her to the world. Candidly, Bellator is not doing that. Matchups were weak and her stage was small. That’s not befitting of her as a champion. So we are going to do big matchups, big stage, Cris Cyborg. So to that end, we said she is a pay-per-view fighter. And she will be fighting on an elevated PFL Super Fight division and a Super Fight division only. She’s that big. She deserves that. So when Cris talks about other fights, we go, ‘That’s beneath you, Cris. You’re past that. So you are a Super Fight fighter and you are in the paid PFL Super Fight Division, number one. Number two is great opponents. You’ve only lost to one person of all time. Cement your legacy.’ And so we’ve set her next fight will be against (PFL featherweight champion) Larissa Pacheco. We know what great fights are. And we’re gonna put on those great fights. So as we said for several months, and I think now Cris likes and accepts, you will see on the next pay-per-view card as a co-main event, Cris Cyborg-Larissa Pacheco. And we’re not ready to announce that date. We know that date, she knows that day. But that’s the fight you will see. And the fans will love it. I think that’s the biggest women’s MMA fight of 2024.
SCNG: It seems to me some of Cyborg’s concerns are, she’s worthy of a pay-per-view, but how many pay-per-views you guys do per year. And the fact that she’s 38 and not getting any younger. And I think she might be looking to get this three-fight deal done, but it might be happening slower than she wants. How do you reconcile that with her being a great champion deserving of a pay-per-view, but maybe the fights aren’t happening as frequently as she wants.
DAVIS: Obviously, those who know us as a company, know me as a leader, we’re always transparent, always direct, not like the other guys, right? We make sure every fighter gets two fights a year, in terms of what we’re going to offer them. And we always give them plenty of opportunity, but we can’t force anybody to do anything. So she was offered a fight in February. She didn’t take it. We’ve been public on that. So she would have had two fights this year. She wanted two fights this year. She didn’t want that fight. So in 2024, she’s got one fight. But we’re going to offer her two fights every year. Somebody of her caliber and somebody of her seasoned age, two fights a year is the right number of fights. We just think that’s good for her and that’s good for fans.
SCNG: Sticking with Bellator featherweight champions, Patricio Pitbull successfully defended his title in March. Afterward, he said, ‘Aaron Pico, you’re next.’ Now, to my knowledge, and I’ve been writing about Aaron Pico for a while now, not many fighters call out Aaron Pico. What are the chances of that title fight happening?
DAVIS: I love Aaron Pico. Obviously, he’s a new fighter to our organization, but not a new fighter known to us. I will tell you that on my way back from Saudi Arabia, Aaron Pico and I were on the same flight. We were trapped in the airport together on a delay for several hours. And without ruining any fun for the fans, all I’ll tell you is Aaron Pico asked me what he would like to do for his next fight. And he said his dream fight would be ‘x’ and his dream location would be ‘y.’ And I called (Head of Bellator Fight Operations) Mike Kogan and I said, ‘I’m in the Saudi Arabian airport. And this is what he would like to do. Sounds pretty good to me. What do you think?’ Mike said, ‘I think that sounds excellent.’ And that’s what’s gonna happen. So we’re not ready to announce it yet. But a clue might be that you’ll cover it and it’s in your area of the woods.
SCNG: You jumped the gun a little for me here. And I appreciate it because I was going to ask you, we’re excited to see the first Bellator Champions Series in the U.S., September 7th, Pechanga Arena, San Diego. No fights have been announced. And I was gonna ask you if you could offer any clues to what MMA fans might be able to expect September 7th.
DAVIS: I think the main clue would be we’re not going to disappoint local fans. That’s the clue.
SCNG: OK, sticking with local fighters and featherweight again. Last but not least, A.J. McKee, former Bellator featherweight champion, dynamic debut defeating Clay Collard like he did (at PFL Champions vs. Bellator Champions in February). He is in an interesting situation between featherweight and lightweight. Where do you see A.J. fitting 145 pounds vs. 155 pounds?
DAVIS: As we do with most fighters of A.J.’s stature, stardom and caliber, we work with him to help him develop and cement his career in the way he wants to do. So I think we’d be flexible in either one with him. In terms of what I think would be the best for him is to elevate his career. So I think for him to perhaps headline closing out the Bellator series, you know, the final show of the year, would be such an elevation. I know that our team is planning how to end the Bellator series in a big and major way. What would be the biggest stars to do that as the co-main events? What would be the biggest title fights to end our first Bellator Champions Series in December? And I think A.J. is in the mix as a perfect candidate to do that, I think that would celebrate his stardom. And I think that would be a direction that would be exciting and fitting.
SCNG: The San Diego card, like you said, that’s in our backyard. You’re promising the locals won’t be disappointed. This feels like a really big year for your company.
DAVIS: Really big year. And as we said, what we’re really proud of is a lot of people said, when we acquired Bellator, just fold it. And we said no. We said, ‘How many MMA companies have put on 300 events?’ Two: UFC and Bellator. And there’s a deep, rich history there that can be reimagined and reinvigorated. And we believe this Bellator Champions Series combines the best of a one-off event and the best of, call it, the meaning that PFL brings to each and every event. So it’s not just same old, same old, you know, and every Bellator Champions year stands on its own. Those champions will always compete in the Champs v. Champs in February, those belts are on the line each and every year in multiple ways. Every Bellator Champions Series has two title fights, there’s only eight a year, you shouldn’t miss them. So they’re very curated. They’re very premium. They’re not just one after another with random numbers that roll on and on. So I’m super excited about what’s happening with Bellator. And we think fans are responding but will really start to respond as the season rolls on.