SVG Sit-Down: Why Professional Fight League CEO John Martin Believes Growth Is Inevitable

A global market, quality fighters, and huge fanbase are key factors

With cable industry veteran and former Turner Broadcasting CEO John Martin now CEO of the Professional Fight League, it’s safe to say that the organization is set to make the right moves when it comes to figuring out its TV and media-rights future. Martin’s philosophy is simple (“My focus as CEO has always been how do we grow the value and revenue of a business?”), and his belief that the current fanbase is underserved means he sees PFL in a strong position for future growth. He spoke with SVG at Sportel Monaco last month.

PFL CEO John Martin sees a large runway for growth on a global scale for the MMA organization.

What do you see as the strengths of MMA?
I would speak to TV executives who believed in boxing, but they thought MMA was too dangerous and that someone will die in the ring. I would give people the stats that nobody has ever died in the cage. Also, you drive around Manhattan, and there are 12 MMA gyms and only two boxing gyms. The popularity of MMA is going in only one direction.

Today, MMA is massive, it’s global, it has no borders, and it’s instantly recognizable. When you put one person against one person, whether it’s in a ring or a cage or whatever, people can’t look away.

How did you get involved with mixed martial arts?
I started to become a mixed-martial-arts student in my mid 20s, and I did that for almost 15 years. I fought in a lot of amateur tournaments. I followed the UFC since UFC1, and I thought it was so dynamic and so amazing. Fast forward to 2005: I had just become the CFO of Time Warner Cable, and I got a call from UFC founder Dana White, who needed some help with distribution for UFC and people told him I was the only person whose name came up who was in the industry and liked MMA.

Fast forward to this past year, and I’m a general partner in an investment fund. One of my partners is on the board of PFL, and he found out my mixed-martial-arts history and interest and said, Would you mind speaking with Don Davis, who’s the founder? He said perhaps you guys can hit it off and maybe you can share your perspective on the industry and PFL and UFC. I said, I’d be happy to do it.

I met Don and really liked him, and I got to understand what he was trying to do at PFL. I shared with him what’s great, what’s maybe not so great. After the third meeting or so, he said, Would you consider coming in and leading it?

What was your evaluation process in making the decision to join PFL?
There were a few things I had to look at before I would sign on. First, the fighter quality: if you’ve got bad fights, it’s not going to work. And then I wanted to see the quality of the live–TV-production capabilities. And I had to convince myself that UFC was not going to be a global monopolist because if it’s winner-takes-all, you’re not going to beat UFC anytime soon. And I wanted to look at what the commercial capabilities of the organization were because the organization had grown really fast even though it was only in existence for seven years.

What I found was considerably better than what I expected. On a global fighter roster, 40% of our fighters are ranked top 25 in the world in their weight class. That’s extraordinary. And the event-production capabilities are quite good. I found out who the producers were, and they are legends in their respective categories.

[On] the global-monopoly question, I said, well, between UFC and PFL, who are the largest premium MA companies, there are only 80 events a year. Compare that to the number-one sport, the world sport: thousands of professional soccer games. Looking at the growth in the category and the commercial opportunities, I felt there’s no way UFC is going to be a global monopoly because the world is a really big place. How many opportunities do you have where your addressable market is the world with no borders and a sport has the third-largest fanbase in the world and is instantly recognizable.

What is the status of your rights deals?
2026 will be the last year of our deal, and now, with the UFC/Paramount deal having been signed, I think there are arguably more potential bidders for rights in the U.S. than there has ever been, because everybody’s got sports ambition and some of the traditional buyers are splitting rights into two. We’re a global league, and we own all of our IP from the top of the funnel all the way through to the bottom.

There are only six global leagues in the world that have that control over all their IP, and they happen to fall into two categories: driving and fighting. In driving, there is F1, NASCAR, and Moto GP; in fighting, there’s UFCW, WWE, and PFL. And five of the six are worth easily billions of dollars each and are owned or controlled by a single shareholder. The only one that is not is the Professional Fighters League.

What do you see as your competitive advantage?
Right now, we have an elite production capability as we put on fights in 11 countries on four continents. We’re the first to put on an event in France, the first one to be in Saudi, and the first one to be in Africa. But it’s the quality of our fighter roster that no one is going to be able to replicate.