Professional Fighters’ League founder Donn Davis is coming for the UFC’s position as top dog in the MMA world. The UFC has long been such a major presence that its name is synonymous with the sport.
However, widely publicized issues surrounding fighter pay and working conditions have marred the Ultimate Fighting Championship of late, and Donn Davis smells blood in the water. As far as he’s concerned, the PFL is on its way to the top.
PFL Founder Donn Davis Is Coming For The UFC
“The biggest thing that PFL has done for the MMA industry is create opportunity. Prior to us, if you were a fighter, you did not have another premium company to go to other than UFC.
Yes, you had options but they didn’t have global distribution, premium pay, the best distribution and brand, great organization to work for until the PFL came along.
So think of it as: you worked in a small company town with no car. You had to take those company options that they gave you. There’s now two companies in that town and you have a car.
That’s the analogy I like to give if you’re a fighter today.” Davis claimed that he pays his fighters better than the UFC does, a difficult claim to quantify, given that the UFC’s biggest star, Conor McGregor, recently topped the list of the world’s best-paid athletes. However, UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou left the promotion for PFL in search of a better paycheck.
“UFC’s a great company, but PFL is a great company. We do everything they do and we do some things better. One, we pay better and two, you’re in control in the PFL. You’re not under somebody’s thumb. What you do inside the cage controls your future.
We’ve never had a fighter leave PFL in five years. We’re not a feeder league. Not one has ever left. When they get here, they go ‘this is fantastic’ and two, we’ve recruited a lot from the other guys.
Francis Ngannou being the latest and the biggest. So we think our system of treating athletes fighter first will prove to be the better system long term. But the best thing we can do for the fighter and the industry and our own company is be fighter first and create opportunity.”
Davis also backs his talent scouting network to the hilt. “UFC doesn’t talk much about this. They like to just have like Dana [White] pick out people that he thinks fight well. We have a much more systematic and a much more global system than just one guy. We scout about 10,000 fighters around the world.
Think of it in baseball terms: You’re scouting single A, AA, AAA and Major League talent. Obviously, the very biggest talent in the world fights in the PFL global league but that’s only 72 fighters a year.
That’s it out of 10,000 fighters who can compete at that level.”
