The Professional Fighters League (PFL) announced in March that starting in 2023, the PFL will begin holding pay-per-view (PPV) events. Further financial details concerning these PPV events have just emerged that can have massive implications for top fighters. PFL Founder Donn Davis has just said that the “top two” fighters will get the opportunity to get a split of 50/50 pay-per-view shares with the company in a post on Instagram.
This means big-name fighters now have a sizable financial incentive to fight in the PFL for its PPV revenue offering. A change like this could be huge going forward, especially with fighter pay being such a hot topic in the sport of MMA.
Alex Rodriguez is Now a PFL Investor
Alex Rodriguez, an MLB icon, has now become a board member and an investor of the PFL. His investment is part of a $30 million funding round for the MMA organization to acquire new talent from many different promotions to build up its pay-per-view brand.
Getting an influential sports figure on the executive committee and capital injection is a huge boost for PFL and MMA as a sport. This could mean more cross-promotional fights with bigger names and global expansion for the PFL. A fight that fans mark as a dream match-up, between two-time PFL women’s lightweight champion Kayla Harrison and former UFC women’s featherweight champion and current Bellator women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg, can be closer to reality than ever.
Breaking the status quo
Every MMA promotion is attempting to grow its fan base and create new revenue streams. Some organizations such as ONE and Bellator have organized pay-per-view events on occasion in the past with limited successes. UFC has PPV events regularly but the number of buys for these events is strongly correlated to how excited fans are for the main events.
For example, some of the highest PPV buys for the UFC were Michael Bisping vs Georges St-Pierre and Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz 2 which were successful due to their storylines and fanfare rather than the ranking of the fighters in their corresponding weight classes. The introduction of the PPV brand for the PFL is big news because sharing revenue with fighters will attract top competition.
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