MMA confidential Inside the minds of MMA managers after PFL’s acquisition of Bellator،
LAS VEGAS — Ali Abdelaziz posted a few lines Dec. 10 on social media that raised collective eyebrows in the mixed martial arts industry.
The prominent MMA manager, who helped guide the careers of all-time greats such as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Kamaru Usman, wrote on he had never felt this way before.
The message was vague and Abdelaziz didn't provide much explanation as a follow-up. Many fans wondered exactly where he was going with this. The post has been viewed nearly a million times.
But others in the sport share Abdelaziz's concerns about the future through 2024. The Professional Fighters League acquired Bellator MMA last month, removing one of the major non-UFC promotions. Some in the industry feel like another major promotion, ONE Championship, is in trouble. PFL is healthy, has significant coffers and is growing. But it would be impossible to bring in every Bellator fighter.
So what about those athletes, those who perhaps fall somewhere between the UFC and regional level fighting, and who still rely on paychecks from their fights to support themselves and their those of their families?
“I think the market is a very scary place right now,” Abdelaziz told ESPN.
Bellator has about 250 fighters under contract, according to former Bellator matchmaker Mike Kogan, who was hired by the PFL last week. Kogan's role within the PFL has not yet been announced. Abdelaziz fears this could leave up to 100 fighters without a clear home next year. Some will hang on to other promotions, but probably not for the kind of money Bellator was paying them. Promotions like LFA, Invicta FC, Cage Warriors, Combate Global and others offer solid products and quality fighters, but they are either smaller operations, regionally based or focused on specific audiences .
No one in the industry blames PFL. Viacom was getting out of the combat sports business and if PFL had not acquired Bellator, the promotion would have simply disbanded and all of its fighters would have lost their jobs. Abdelaziz said he believes “the PFL saved the day”, but that there are only a limited number of fighters the PFL can retain logistically. The plan is for the PFL to hold about 30 events next year, leaders said.
“One of my biggest worries is that everyone will go bankrupt and only the UFC and PFL will be left standing,” Abdelaziz said. “And after that, as managers and fighters, we have no bargaining power. And the UFC needs ONE FC, they need Bellator and they need PFL because, in reality, they don't can't make everyone grow from the bottom up. These guys. [the other promotions], they do that. Sometimes people leave for UFC or they are in UFC and go to PFL or ONE. It’s good for the fighters.”
UFC President Dana White had been flippant about the PFL's acquisition of Bellator, telling a media scrum that it was “a shitty organization buying a another shitty organization.” But even he acknowledged Saturday night during the UFC 296 post-fight press conference that losing another global promotion isn't good for the health of the MMA ecosystem.
“It’s a bad thing,” White said. “It's not a good thing that there are fewer options, not only for fighters and fighters, but also for guys who have just had fewer options. So yeah, it's not certainly not a good thing.”
Several managers that ESPN spoke with for this article don't have much confidence in ONE as a destination in this perceived weak market outside of the UFC.
“I know ONE FC was looking at coming to America more, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen,” one of the managers of many fighters across promotions told ESPN, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Obviously I'm not privy to some of these closed-door conversations, but we've only seen one event so far in Denver, which seemed to be a success, but we haven't seen anything since . It worries me that they won't have a physical presence in America like we thought.”
ONE announced over the summer that it planned to air four shows in the United States in 2024. However, one report from financial publication Dead Street Asia said that ONE's “runway is set to expire” by the third quarter of 2024. In other words, the promotion needs more investors or it could risk going bankrupt. Bloody Elbow reported from financial filings that ONE lost $110 million in 2021 and losses are mounting.
ONE declined to comment directly, but referred ESPN to quotes President Chatri Sityodtong told the South China Morning Post earlier this month.
Sityodtong said “you can't believe everything you read” and that ONE's revenues will be more than $100 million in 2023. He said he has “literally no” concerns about the finances of the promotion.
“It’s regrettable [that] “There are haters who have interests to defend, but they can defend them,” Sityodtong said. “My team and I, my board and my investors, are 1,000% committed. It would be a different story, it would have more credibility, if all of our measures collapsed or something like that.
Meanwhile, there is hope in the industry for what PFL could become. The promotion made a splash in 2023. PFL signed Francis Ngannou, who was the UFC heavyweight champion, and Jake Paul, the lightning rod YouTuber turned fighter. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has invested approximately $100 million in the PFL. And, to top it all off, PFL acquired Bellator in a sweet deal, adding several high-end talents to its burgeoning roster.
The PFL has signaled to the MMA industry that it is going to become a legitimate player for free agents. Earlier this month, free agent Michael “Venom” Page appeared at a PFL Europe event in Ireland and entered the cage to face PFL prospect Cedric Doumbé. Page, a former knockout artist at Bellator, ended up signing with the UFC, but sources said the PFL was in the running with a lucrative offer.
“They made a statement that all of us in the market need to see,” said Audie Attar, CEO of Paradigm Sports Management, which represents, among others, Conor McGregor. “Whether it was Ngannou or Paul, they made a statement about how they structured these deals, based on their visibility. [stated in] some media reports.
The PFL's commercial relations with the Saudis do not harm its strength either. When this deal was announced, shares of the UFC's parent company, Endeavor, and WWE, which merged with the UFC as a new publicly traded company called TKO Group, both fall. The UFC will also make its first trip to Saudi Arabia in March and will receive a $20 million venue fee for it, Endeavor President Mark Shapiro said at a conference earlier this month.
“I think [PFL]“The cap table and their investors are just too smart to fuck up,” an MMA agent told ESPN on condition of anonymity last month. “I don't think they're going to be a day No. 1, but I think they will be competitive.
One of the byproducts of PFL's acquisition of Bellator is former Bellator President Scott Coker's absence from the sport, at least for now. Coker also owned and built Strikeforce, which was purchased by the UFC and boasted some of the best talent in the world. MMA analyst and former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen said he hopes a promotion would at least bring in Coker as a consultant if he's interested.
“He’s one of the top three minds in the history of the sport,” said Sonnen, who fought for Bellator under Coker.
Could there be room for a new major MMA promotion with Bellator integrated into the PFL? One official said that might be the case in North America, “provided it is properly funded and can attract talent.”
The PFL's hiring of Kogan received near-unanimous praise from Bellator fighters and others in the industry. He's been involved in MMA for over two decades, helped create the best team in Bellator history and has previously managed players like Nate Diaz. Kogan said those worried about the state of the sport should pump the brakes a bit and let the PFL do its job.
It's not out of the question, he says, to one day see the PFL organize more than 40 events a year and have more than 600 fighters under contract like the UFC does. It may not happen in 2024, but the PFL has a vision and a lot of ambition, he said.
“[PFL buying Bellator] It's not bad for the sport,” Kogan said. “It's good for the sport. Everyone will be fine. You know what would have been bad for the sport? All Bellator fighters will receive a release letter on January 1st. It would be bad for the sport. »
Yet some athletes may not have the luxury of patience.
“I think the fear is that there will be fewer opportunities next year for fighters to make an honest living,” one manager said. “It’s certainly a concern of ours and a fear of ours that we’re trying to be proactive about and address as much as possible.”
