Competitive fire burns widely throughout the combat sports industry, but new PFL CEO John Martin doesn’t seem interested in engaging in a war of words with UFC CEO Dana White any time soon.
In fact, Martin said he’s been an MMA fan for over two decades, largely in part thanks to White’s product. He’s trained in both karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu and followed the sport as he navigated through executive positions at large media companies, including Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting.
When Martin was CFO at Time Warner, he even met with White and then-UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta and hoped to purchase the company in 2016.
“I first met Dana in 2005 and in 2016 we became very close to acquiring the UFC,” Martin recently told MMA Junkie. “Had Time Warner not been way down the path already to announcing a sale of the whole company to AT&T, I’m convinced we would’ve bought UFC. I don’t know if Dana would remember this but we sat in their wonderful kitchen in Vegas and he and Lorenzo said they wanted to be acquired by Time Warner. I was the person he was talking to. I’ve followed his career. I’ve got great respect for what they’ve done. I look forward to, like I said, being in the same competitive space with them.”
Now that Martin has entered the MMA space, he’s looking to improve viewer experience as the promotion heads into what will be a media rights year. Though they are in the same space, utilizing much of the same viewership base, Martin is self-aware of the shadow PFL currently sits in. Martin isn’t focused on the UFC. He’s focused on PFL.
“Right now, I don’t really view them as a competitor. I’m not naive,” Martin said. “I understand we’re in the same industry and the same sport. They have a big lead and they’re much bigger and on a much bigger scale than PFL. I think the fact they are so successful right now, part of what I’m really bullish about with PFL’s future is because UFC continues to grow the overall category, the overall industry’s competitive chain. You did mention there are some other companies out there pursuing the space, but they are way behind where we are. Over time, I’d like to continue to get better and better in the core MMA business. But I come from a long-standing media background and there have never been more innovative ways to get storytelling going and get fans engaged and begin to tell stories in different ways.
“Our sport is really about storytelling, so I’d like to begin to exploit that. Long-term ambition would be PFL would be a very successful and valuable global media company. That’s long-term. We’ve got a long way to go. I want to make sure we’re continuing to put all the necessary pieces in place to grow this business intelligently, take advantage of the global market expansion and delight fans. Because ultimately, if the fans like PFL, we’re going to do great.”
