We got MVPW 05, the fifth MVPW event coming up .
I know you probably get to ask this all the time, but looking back at where you started now with the fifth event coming up, what tells you this platform is gaining real momentum here?
We started MVP five years ago with the belief that women’s boxing has the.
Right product to become a mainstay within sports.
Many laughed at us.
If you look at the last 5 years, the only time a female boxer has been a co-main event, let alone a main event in a pay per view product, has been on an MVP card.
And so we have invested for 4.5 years to get to this point.
And once we did the first ever all women’s event on Netflix, that was the inflection point to show the sport what these athletes are capable of and then quickly thereafter to be able to obtain partnerships with ESPN, which is this Saturday night for our 3rd show on ESPN Linear and Sky Sports, a UK, you know, prominent sports platform to partner with MVP.
Tells me who we’re definitely on the right track.
Definitely, and you, like you said, this is airing on ESPN.
The card has 3 meaningful fights with, you know, what people would say are championship implications.
What makes this card as, as these MVPW cards progress, what makes this card maybe different from the previous 4?
Well, I think if you look at the main and the co-main event.
They’re unbelievable matchups.
When you think about Nie Johnson, who has fought, you know, twice already for us.
This will be her 3rd time in a year, taking on Dina Thorsland, who when we signed Dina, she was the pound for pound box wreck number 1 fighter.
She didn’t lose her belts.
She had to withdraw due to a pregnancy, and now she’s coming back for her undisputed status.
And then look, the co-main event, what a, what a story that is.
Desley Robinson.
A mother of 3 from Australia who has continued to improve and become a dominant boxer, and she holds 2 important belts, plus the ring belt is on the line.
Which at the 160 weight class in two weeks, Clarissa Shields is contending for the other two belts, and Desley is taking on Tam Tebow, who is 4-0, fairly young in her career, but a dominant puncher who, if she wins, will become the youngest ring belt champion in history.
So we’re super.
Super excited about this.
Yeah, you mentioned, uh, Johnson versus Thursland.
I think, you, you know, both women have a legitimate shot to be a true, maybe unified champion at some point.
How difficult because of these names and where they are in their career, how difficult was it to get this fight across the finish line?
Not, not, not hard at all.
Dina, obviously, you know, she lost.
The belt’s due to, you know, withdrawing due to pregnancy, and, you know, Nixs is amazing.
Every time we call her and say, here’s the fight, she says, I’m in.
Just tell me where she’s been tremendous to work with.
She does the promoting outside of the ring, obviously delivers inside the ring, so it wasn’t difficult at all to put what that one together.
Yeah, and you mentioned Dina’s story, it’s, I think, very inspirational.
She stepped away, she was pregnant, had some personal loss.
Now she kind of gets that, the chance for that redemption short story to win back what she, she didn’t really ever lose, right?
Does this make it one of the most compelling fights MVP has ever promoted?
Dina’s story is incredible, and For her to, you know, get the opportunity to finally display her skills on the world stage, because I think she’s only fought in Denmark and Germany.
So she was gonna fight in New York on Netflix, show the world who she is.
Now, she made a life choice to obviously pursue the pregnancy and then unfortunately, uh, lost the baby.
And so this is, this is, yeah, this is very meaningful.
And she’s 24-0 and always looks dominant.
The question is being Out of the ring at this weight class for so long, and Nick’s being active, does that, you know, mean it’ll be a little bit more difficult than Dina than she anticipates?
That’s what’s exciting to see.
But I’ll add to it, I don’t know if you saw the news today, but Raven Chapman, uh, unfortunately, uh, was in a coma and she was in camp sparring with Dina.
Dina has posted about it.
So I think there’s gonna be a lot of Emotions for Dina throughout this week and come fight night.
Let’s talk about the co-main event, uh, Tam Teball.
She’s fighting for unified world titles.
I think it’s just her 5th professional fight.
How rare is that and what convinced MVP and you and Jake that she was ready for this opportunity so early in her career?
Look, she’s a decorated amateur, and it’s not just convincing us, it’s convincing the sanctioned bodies that she was ready and everyone.
Believes that she has the skills, the power, and of course, the desire to be champion.
You know, you can’t always in women’s boxing look at the record as the reflection of the.
The preparedness of the opportunity.
So we think she has a really good shot, but Desley, you know, as I said, is a true fighter, mother of three, and has only gotten better and only stronger as her career has progressed.
But Tam could set history here.
I think Lauren Price holds the record for the fastest to achieve a ring belt, which I think was in her 7th fight.
This is Tam’s 4th, 5th fight.
Looking beyond Saturday, it seems like you guys have, you know, you signed champions contenders from Australia, Canada, Europe.
Obviously you had a footprint in the US.
How intentional has it been for you guys to build a global home for women’s boxing rather than just focusing on, say, the US market?
Yeah, I’ll say, look, we, we’re focused on signing the best prospects, the best contenders, and the best champions globally.
That’s driven by being able to represent and put on the best product possible for the sport.
The sport is still very young.
It only became an Olympic sport in 2012.
I’m very excited about the 2028 Olympics where women’s boxing will be in the US for the first time, but our intentions are to have the best fighters no matter, you know, what country they’re from.
So let’s switch gears a little bit.
Obviously, there’s some big news.
You said that the kind of the goal of.
MVP was, but you wanted to build the future of combat sports, not just be a promoter.
What does the future of MVP MMA look like 3 to 5 years now that we’re, you have the PFL um involved?
I think, look, it’s about building a fighter first platform that provides, of course, equitable compensation, but also built on empowerment and developing individual fighter IP.
And continuing to push and provide opportunity for these athletes as their own brands, not just being the brand MVP and assuming that signifies what it means to be an MMA fan.
We feel there’s a massive gap in terms of how UFC has evolved into really focusing on its brand and its margins versus focusing on its fighters and its fans.
And so that next gen approach of really leading with the fighter, everything we do being based off, be based off of them and their brand is what’s gonna make us successful.
And you know, the PFL kind of had the infrastructure, the roster, a little bit of a global footprint.
You guys obviously bring the marketing.
Engine combat to the success you just had with the Ronda Rousey fight.
Was this kind of a case of both companies filling in what the other maybe lacked in some areas?
Yeah, I think, look, on the MMA side, it’s, it’s clear if we wanted to take advantage of the success that we had on May 16th, we had to do something strategic.
Just looking to build it organically over time was never gonna let us capitalize the right way on that momentum.
When you think about on the boxing side, we’ve done unbelievable things in 5 years on the women’s side, and I’m putting on some of the biggest boxing events the world has ever seen.
But we’re gonna get a lot of benefit from the global infrastructure of PFL.
We’re gonna get a lot of benefit from the fight roster of PFL and the ability of our fighters to cross over into each discipline or sport between boxing and MMA, and we love John Martin as the CEO of the new combined entity, given his deep, successful media background.
I was just gonna ask you, ask you about John Martin.
He’s obviously leading the company, like you just said, for fans who might not know him by name or his experience or what he brings to the table, what ultimately made him the right person to lead this next chapter?
Yeah, I met John Martin in 2016 when I was at the UFC and we were looking to sell the company on behalf of Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta.
And, you know, I talked to one of my former colleagues actually yesterday, and he’s like, you remember when we met with John Martin, how we, we walked away and said that guy actually understands the sport?
I said, yeah, I do remember that.
That’s, that’s why he’s the right person for this job.
Cause John has unbelievable pedigree when it comes to the media world, was the CEO of Turner, CFO of Time Warner, the parent company of Turner for some period of time.
But more importantly, he is an avid student of the martial arts, a practitioner of the martial arts, and loves MMA.
So, no better person to be running that, this organization overall.
But when you think about the importance of MMA and MVP Nuo and his background in media plus his understanding of the MMA landscape, I couldn’t think of a better person.
You know, when we talked, uh, ahead of the Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano fight, I asked you about like competing with the UFC and I think your mindset has, you’ve always told me like you don’t actually see.
it as competing with the UFC just because of how big they are.
With this merger, have you, have you changed your outlook as far as the competition space in MMA?
I think, look, we’re competing for eyeballs every day with every single product that’s out there.
Of course, when you think about boxing and MMA, we’re competing with Zufa, with UFC, with Matchroom, Top Rank, you name the brands within these two sports.
But when I say we’re not competing with UFC, We’re not putting on the volume of events.
We obviously don’t have the revenue profile of them today, but I do believe we will quickly become the second brand unequivocally in the MMA space, and I think with this merger, if we’re able to secure the right TV partnerships going forward, which I’m confident we will, I think in 7 to 10 years.
It’s gonna be MVP.
It’s not gonna be UFC.
MVP is the way forward.
That’s, that’s what kids are gonna be talking about is the culturally relevant mainstream brand that puts fighters first and really appreciates the fans.
I’m gonna wrap with this one.
I think with MVP MMA and MVP boxing, Jake’s name is always, who is he gonna fight next?
What discipline is he gonna fight?
And next, will we see Jake Paul within the next 2 years fight in the MVP MMA, get in a cage instead of a ring?
Uh, 100%, you’ll see Jake come back to the boxing ring in the next 4 to 5 months at the latest, and 100%, you will see Jake Paul, uh, enter MMA as well.
And I believe when Jake Paul enters MMA, it will become the most viewed MMA event in history.
