Jake Paul On Competing With The UFC

Jake Paul believes Most Valuable Promotions can compete with the UFC.

He spent a SportsCenter interview explaining why he thinks the numbers support that claim. Paul has spent several years building MVP from a boxing outfit centered on his own fights into a broader combat sports brand.

The recent merger with PFL represents the most significant structural expansion yet, adding infrastructure, capital, and a global events footprint to what Paul had already constructed. The way he frames it, the combination produces something greater than its parts.

"I think it's a one-of-a-kind combat sports organization now with even more capital infused to continue to grow at the rate we have. That's really why one plus one equals three here and why we decided to team up with PFL to really go and change the landscape and give fighters the opportunity to have the viewership and the big paydays and to go ahead and compete with the UFC head to head,” Paul

Fighter pay has been central to MVP's pitch from the beginning, and it remains a recurring theme in how Paul positions the organization against the UFC. The argument is straightforward: the UFC's dominant market position has suppressed fighter compensation, and an organization with genuine resources and competitive ambitions can offer an alternative.

Whether that alternative can sustain itself financially over the long term is the question the business will eventually have to answer, but as a recruiting message it has clear appeal.

"You're just going to see more events on a bigger global stage with an expanded roster, and we look to scale the company and lock down more TV rights deals to be able to put on more events onto these platforms," Paul

Paul also made a broader point about where live sports sits in the current media landscape, framing combat sports specifically as something that artificial intelligence cannot replicate or replace.

"It's such an exciting time for sports entities with the evolution of AI. The physical world is becoming more important, and it's something that AI can't replace, and that's humans in sport," Paul

Whether MVP-PFL can translate that tailwind into a meaningful challenge to the UFC's market position is the larger question.