Founder of the Professional Fighters League, Donn Davis, will be leaving the promotion with immediate effect after announcing the bombshell in a statement.
Eight years ago, the Professional Fighters League (PFL) was launched by Donn Davis, and the promotion was built around the former World Series of Fighting format.
And after years of attempting to rival and challenge the UFC, this Wednesday afternoon, Davis shockingly announced he is leaving the promotion with immediate effect.
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Donn Davis announces he is leaving the PFL in bombshell statement
Just the matter of years after acquiring and folding Bellator, PFL has continued to run their league format as a way of differing from other combat sports promotions.
However, at the beginning of this year, it was announced that the promotion was doing away with their league format and would be running events as normal.
And ahead of what the promotion is hoping will be a huge year, Davis announced that he will be stepping away in a statement on social media.
“From the moment I founded the Professional Fighters League eight years ago, it has been my life. My vision was to create an innovative and premium MMA company as a valuable alternative for those who want it or need it,” he began his statement.
“We started with nothing—except universal skepticism. Against all odds, we succeeded. Now PFL is the clear No. 2 MMA company worldwide and the only other premium product. From zero fighters to 80 of the top 300 world-ranked fighters under exclusive contract. From zero live events to 24 per year on four continents.
“From zero distribution to 190 countries with 20 major media partners. From zero viewers to an average of 2 million linear and streaming global viewers per event. From zero social followers to 30 million active across all platforms.
“I care deeply about each employee, value highly every investor, respect greatly our fighters, and sincerely appreciate all our fans who supported this company. I gave you everything I’ve got… PFL has changed the great sport of MMA for the better—through meaningful innovations, unique global expansion, and fighter empowerment—and the company is just getting started. I’ve loved fighting to build PFL,” he finished.
Davis was responsible for some huge signings
Although a lot of his work would have been behind the scenes, Davis was responsible for making some huge signings during his time as the founder.
In 2023, the promotion announced the huge acquisition of former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, who is now in many ways the face of their promotion.
Not long before that, Davis signed controversial internet sensation turned boxer, Jake Paul, who although he hasn’t competed in the promotion, helped with their mission of being a ‘fighter-first’ promotion.
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