Most Valuable Promotions and the Professional Fighters League announced Thursday that the two companies have merged, creating a combined combat sports company that will operate under the MVP banner across boxing, MMA, live events, athlete development, and global content distribution.

PFL CEO John Martin will serve as CEO and board member of the new company and lead the overall business. Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian will serve as co-founders and board members, with Bidarian continuing to oversee MVP’s boxing verticals and blockbuster live events. Existing PFL shareholders 885 Capital and Knighthead Capital Management are becoming Founding Investors of the new entity and committing new capital, which the announcement said ensures the combined company launches with the strongest balance sheet in its history.

MVP will be the master brand for all combat sports properties. MVP and MVPW continue as the boxing cornerstones, while PFL’s roster, league operations, and international infrastructure will form the foundation of MVP MMA, with the migration to be completed in the coming months. The combined company will feature nearly 400 athletes and plans to host five live events across boxing and MMA in August.

“Since launching MVP, our goal has always been bigger than just building a boxing promotion. It has been to build the future of combat sports,” Bidarian said in the announcement. “In less than five years, MVP has become one of the most influential and culturally relevant brands in the industry, producing some of the biggest events in combat sports history, elevating women’s boxing to unprecedented heights, and bringing millions of new fans into the fight game. The success of MVP MMA’s first event confirmed our belief that there is enormous demand for a modern, fighter-first approach to MMA. This merger accelerates our MMA ambitions while strengthening our ability to continue investing in boxing and MVPW. By combining MVP’s audience-building engine, storytelling capabilities, and brand with PFL’s roster, infrastructure, and international footprint, we are creating a new global home for combat sports.”

Martin, who previously served as Chairman and CEO of Turner and as Chief Financial Officer of Time Warner, framed the deal as a combination of scale and reach.

“Over the past seven years, PFL has built the world’s No. 2 global MMA company, assembling one of the sport’s most elite fighter rosters while creating a world-class global business with premier media distribution across 34 broadcast and streaming partners, reaching fans in more than 170 countries,” Martin said. “At the same time, MVP has redefined how combat sports connects with a new generation of fans, creating events that become cultural moments and proving that athletes, sports, entertainment and creators can all thrive together. This merger brings scale, in operations, in distribution and media rights, in sponsorship, in fighter development and in fan engagement. We’re not just combining companies, we’re bringing an entire combat sports community together and creating a more powerful platform to accelerate growth. One company, one global stage, millions of fans and we’re only just getting started.”

Paul confirmed in his statement that he intends both to return to the ring and to compete in MMA for the first time.

“We started MVP to disrupt a broken model. We wanted to give fighters fair pay and a bigger, modernized stage to become global superstars. Joining forces with PFL accelerates that vision by a decade,” Paul said. “We now have a scaled platform to give today’s fans what they want: elite talent mixed with culture, lifestyle, and massive social velocity. MVP was always bigger than me and bigger than any one fighter. MVP is an inevitable movement that needs to happen for the athletes, and now we have all the resources we need to build something that changes this sport forever. I have more conviction in MVP than ever, driven by the proliferation of AI, which will only increase the value of real, live experiences and the sports properties that can bring fans closer to the athletes they love. I look forward to putting my entire promotional muscle into our new company, returning to the boxing ring and making my MVP MMA debut. To all current MVP and PFL fighters, things just got bigger. To fighters fighting in other organizations, we are open for business when you are contractually free. The time for change is now. Welcome to MVP.”

On the investor side, 885 Capital co-founder Sudeep Ramnani said the firm backs “founders and leaders who are building industries from first principles” and that the combined platform “reaches fans from the most established markets to the fastest-growing regions in the world, with a fighter-first model built for how audiences consume sport today.” Knighthead Capital co-founder Ara Cohen said the transaction “brings together highly complementary assets to create a scaled global combat sports platform with significant long-term growth potential,” adding that Knighthead is deepening its investment in support of Martin, Paul, and Bidarian. Both firms took lead ownership of PFL in a January capital raise that coincided with founder Donn Davis stepping down as chairman.

The combined company will maintain relationships with Netflix, ESPN, Sky Sports, DAZN, and PFL’s network of 34 distribution partners across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other territories. PFL brings a roster of more than 300 fighters from over 40 countries and has staged more than 100 events across 14 countries since 2018, with 24 events planned across 11 countries in 2026. MVP’s resume since 2021 includes the most-streamed sporting event of all time in Paul against Mike Tyson, the Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano trilogy, and an MMA debut in May, headlined by Ronda Rousey against Gina Carano at Intuit Dome, that averaged 12.4 million global viewers on Netflix, a figure no MMA organization outside the UFC has approached.

The merger caps a week of consolidation around MVP. Two days earlier, the company announced a strategic alliance with Matchroom Boxing focused on women’s boxing. The combined MVP now holds championship-level rosters in both sports and positions itself as the most direct challenger to TKO Group Holdings, which operates the UFC in MMA and Zuffa Boxing in the ring.

Goodwin Procter LLP served as legal counsel to MVP, with Rick Torres leading the transaction, and Cooley LLP represented PFL, with Jim Bramson leading. Additional leadership, organizational, and operational details will be announced at a later date.