Martin became CEO of the Professional Fighters League this year
In the five months since former Turner Broadcasting chief John Martin took over as CEO of the Professional Fighters League, there has already been a major shift in the quick moving and still growing world of MMA competitions.
UFC’s mega US broadcasting deal with Paramount+ saw it move away from pay-per-view in its biggest market, and, alongside similar moves from the likes of Netflix in boxing, has created doubts over the future of pay-per-viewas a form of monetisation for fight sports.
Martin believes that this switch is an opportunity for the PFL, which is currently shown by former UFC broadcaster ESPN in the US. He told Broadcast Sport that the deal, “indicates that mixed martial arts is now a really mainstream sport,” and that, “UFC had to try to convince partners and sponsors and media buyers that that MMA is a real sport. They’ve done that now.”
UFC’s largest MMA competitor will now, “have to grapple with the fact that their their exposure is going to be somewhat limited by Paramount+ and its subscribers.” PFL, meanwhile, will speak with ESPN, “to try to figure out over coming months, what is their interest level in mixed martial arts, and whether they want to be in business with the Professional Fighters League,” with US media rights Martin’s, “biggest priority,” at this early point in his tenure.
Martin himself isn’t sold on pay-per-view, and is keen for the PFL to aim for growing its audience rather than take the biggest offer on the table, in all markets. He said, “The movement away from pay-per-view makes a lot of sense to me.”
He added, “It may have a place, but it’s not going to be a huge emphasis and focus [for us]. If you’re trying to grow a global brand, you want to reach as many people as you can in as many ways possible,” noting that, “I would love to be in business with partners who not only will pay us more money, that’s important, but will give us consistent scheduling on high profile platforms, and will market and promote us and help to grow our value.”
In the UK and Europe, PFL has operated a joint venture with DAZN, launching a regional PFL Europe league, and for similar reasons Martin is currently, “evaluating,” that deal, “We appreciate everything that DAZN has done, the deal that they did and what they’ve done for PFL. We’re very appreciative of that, but there’s a balance. If you’re growing a brand, putting something behind a paywall versus having a brand be available to more people needs to be evaluated to see what’s in the best interest of the brand.”
Another potential change Martin is looking at is the structure of the competition itself, which has operated on a tournament basis in the past. He’s keen to move to a system closer to the UFC and boxing, with reigning world champions at different weights. This began with Corey Anderson and Usman Nurmagomedov crowned champions at a recent event in Dubai, and is set to continue. “We’re going to be hosting events in 2026 where we’re going to be crowning new champions, a champion per weight class. We’re simplifying the structure.
“Tournaments are fantastic because they’re very meritocratic, but don’t necessarily lend themselves perfectly to storytelling.”
One thing that is likely to stay the same with Martin is PFL’s in-house production team, although he is, “Open to everything and anything. We’ve been in some discussions around the world about how we increase our storytelling capabilities.” The PFL has worked with the likes of Little Dot and LadBible on its content.
With all this happening less than six months after Martin arrived in the role, he has big targets for the PFL, and he’s no less ambitious for the slightly longer term. In the next three years, he, “would like to grow PFL into being widely recognised as a very respected and large global sports league and sports promotion and I think we’ve got a legitimate shot at doing it. We’re not playing for increasing 10% here or there. I’m playing for, ‘how do we make this thing multiples bigger, better, and more recognisable than it is today?’”
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