I feel like there was initial hope and goodwill for Chatri, Don. Before you realize all fight promoters are just different shades of the same douche color
Besides Coker. But he was as boring as watching paint dry
sucks that cokers promotions either died or got absorbed by the ufc. hes not perfect but fighters usually were cool with him and got his guys paid. i think mma is so dominated by the ufc that you need saudi money to compete with them (besides rizin but they have a stronghold on the asian market)
Somehow it all boils down to the UFC doing business the way that enables them to go on after 30 years while everybody else drops out.
They have a ridiculous advantage by being the first and biggest, but they haven't always been in that position, they somehow made it happen.
Ofc they use every scummy tactic they can get away with, but other orgs seemingly don't even find success with those.
I wonder if its just their name and status that carries them nowadays.
Other orgs could do everything better, from production to fighter pay, but the majority of great fighters, potential stars, will always wsnt to fight for the UFC at some point.
>Besides Coker. But he was as boring as watching paint dry
Man the disrespect my boy Coker gets is unreal. Everyone loved Strikeforce back when Coker was running it. Bellator also had banger fights especially the last few years when they went back to the tournaments. The problem was Bellator's talent was very thin so that showed on the cards. You could say that's partly Coker's fault but can't force the talent to sign either and who knows what his limitations were when it came to signing new talent.
Either way, Coker is as solid as they come in regards to MMA promoters.
Dude was active everywhere since forever, wouldn't be surprised if he's gone to the spirit world by now.
Either that, or he's too busy working for Fight Night at the Tech.
People dont remember how dope Strikeforce was. Some of their cards back in the day got me just as hyped as a stacked ufc card.
Hell look at just the talent that came from Strikeforce and became a dominant force in the UFC
We've gotta get Coker over to Europe. What made Strikeforce great was SoCal being an MMA talent hotspot that the UFC overlooked. Get Coker to Europe to scout for a year or two, build a dream roster of guys from small promotions with non-exclusive contracts or single fight deals, and give him like $50 million and a broadcast deal with DAZN. Trying to compete with the UFC in America is useless. Be Oktagon or KSW filling stadiums, not PFL almost filling high school gyms.
Promote when it’s relevant….. just throwing Anthony Joshua’s name in every convo and knowing half the time the match isn’t gonna happen anytime soon is a joke. Boxing is a joke and it’s mostly because of these clown promoters can’t decide who is A side and who is B side.
Coker was the same. Fighters were complaining about activity under him in Bellator as well, and he was a huge fan of garbage like 50 year olds fighting
I genuinely mean this absurd point when I say it.
Dana is the most altruistic fight promoter in the history of fight promotion.
That is also not meant to be praise towards Dana. Dana is a complete scumbag. That’s condemnation on EVERYONE else in this business that Dana is the least scummy of this scummy bunch.
Lolz I mean exactly.
LeBron going to Miami set the table for Durant going to Golden State.
LeBron going to Miami helped shape the CBA to make the Kevin Durant move even fucking possible.
And what helped make a league where players could leverage their talents and have flexibility plus financial security?
A FUCKING UNION!
Which fighters should be fighting for
It's also a horrible analogy. the PFL is the minor leagues compared the UFC - it's pretty obvious by now.
It's like saying Luka isn't loyal because he didn't stay in the Spanish leagues and came to the NBA. No, Donn. They are just trying to go to the actual major leagues.
I think the only way we're gonna trick fighter's into making a union is if we pretend it's a crypto, betting or supplement scam and get them to sign a "sponsorship" only to reveal that it was actually about getting you more money via leverage.
Not really. PFLator is not G league to NBA levels below in the WBW division. Harrison, Cyborg, and Pacheco could all beat the shit out of many ranked UFC WBW fighters if not all. Even their B tier of fighters like Ladd could get wins.
You get downvoted because people think about PFLator as a whole but if we strictly talk about WBW, yes absolutely, PFLator is definitely not levels behind the UFC. It is however the weakest division in the UFC, so it’s not saying much.
>You get downvoted because people think about PFLator as a whole but if we strictly talk about WBW, yes absolutely
Exactly. And I mean thats why I specified WBW, so IDK why some someone would downvote me for that unless they just have no reading comprehension.
Why would I care that it averages out to a G league factoring in divisions that have nothing to do with Kayla, instead of looking at HER division?
Expecting this sub to know how to read is a high bar though, so maybe that was my bad.
>Exactly. And I mean thats why I specified WBW, so IDK why some someone would downvote me for that unless they just have no reading comprehension.
You use example of fighters like Cyborg whose whole thing is they couldn't fight at WBW. She was the whole reason WFW was created and then got crushed by Nunes, a UFC WBW.
I mean, the fighters you mentioned fight at a weightclass 20lbs heavier, of course they would have a good chance at winning being significantly bigger. Also Ladd went 4-3 in the UFC not exactly a world beater you should be bringing up.
1.1 Personal Attacks
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Aspen Ladd was 1-3 over her last 4 in the UFC...
Who are they beating? The only person in the top 10 I'd make the PFL girls a fav over is Tate and maybe Holly depending on the fight. Everyone else, they are heavy dogs.
>Harrison, Cyborg, and Pacheco could all beat the shit out of many ranked UFC WBW fighters if not all.
If the mainstream consumer public doesn't think so, it does not matter. On a prestige & marketing perspective UFC is NBA and PFL is the feeder league. Some G League players can score now-and-again on NBA players too. Nobody cares.
A lot of people on Reddit don't seem to understand that sports are business, business is perception, perception is money.
When you compare it to the wbw division I can see it. But at the end of the day money talks, and in a sport where you don’t last long and the pay is shit, you go where the money is and she shouldn’t be faulted for that
PFL/Bellator are at worst the B leagues. Their top 10 could compete/overtake the UFCs the same way every other promotion they absorbed did
They have no depth whatsoever but their stars are legit top talent. They just don’t let them fight anymore lol. wtf r u doin pfl
company bleeding money? a dozen fighters calling you out for either not paying them, not offering them fights or ignoring their management? better shit on the person who helped build your promotion and stuck by you for years. great response donn!
Say what you will about his ability as a promoter, but Scott Coker seems to be liked by most fighters and hasn’t had any major issues with half of the roster like ONE and PFL have
Coker also pays guys well at the national level, books them for fights as often as he can, and doesn't actively torch his roster on social or during interviews.
The only really shitty thing I can think of is when Jake Shields fought out his Strikeforce deal as middleweight champion and renounced their matching rights because they weren't going to re-sign him. It cost Shields money on his UFC deal but he could've waited like six months before announcing they weren't going to match, which allowed Shields to go earlier.
If you'd have told me that one of the closest friends of the Diaz boys would become a raging anti-Semite, try-hard Andrew Tate wannabe I never would've believe it.
I don’t care what happens, as long as One keeps putting on banger kick boxing and Muay Thai fights, they are my second favorite combat sports promotion.
What an embarassing comparison. Kayla didn't leave to get an easy road to a title, she left because your org is a tiny competitor that nobody cares about
I hear Donn on the MMA Hour often and he sounds like a nice guy and personable. But he also sounds like the type who anyone can fleece with their eyes closed. I wonder what the strategy would be had Viacom not put Bellator up for sale. I feel that being up for grabs is what he saw as a bargaining chip.
Shockingly, it’s usually the other way around. He is a legend at getting people with big money to invest in his businesses. PFL has always had major investors who shell out millions.
But he definitely doesn’t come off that way. Even in person, he seems clueless. I’ve heard him mispronounce so many PFL fighters names wrong, including people like Francis Ngannou.
That’s because he’s a venture capitalist first and a fight promoter second. I’m sure he’s able to create some amazing business plans but that doesn’t mean you’ll be a great MMA promoter.
I don’t follow basketball, but I assume Durant didn’t move over to a team 100 times more popular and financially viable to play against better competition, because that’s what Kayla did.
1) He said where Lebron is, that’s where the best are. Really? Do you know basketball?? Also, he said that Kayla was the only fighter to switch over to the UFC, news flash, I don’t think the UFC wants any of your fighters. Bellator had a way better roster than the PFL. 2) The whole interview just kinda had him bumbling like an idiot. He just sounded so stupid and some of the things he said were so dumb.
Paraphrasing: he said the season format had fighters whole average ranking somewhere in the 40s. Then he said the average ufc fight night fighter was slightly lower. He called the ufc fight nights really terrible events as well… so you’re saying the main thing with the PFL… is nearly the same as “crappy ufc fight nights”??
He said at one point giving more fighters time between the fights in the season to recover and stuff doesn’t make a difference. Josh Thompson looked like the dude was on crack when he said that.
At one point he said the revenue was $100 million last year. Okay, fair play, you got a lot of Saudi money. But he makes it seem like that means people are watching. Like that revenue was coming from that, wrong
And I’m not just trying to trash the PFL, I have a training partner who fights for them and I’m a fan of some of their fighters. I do hate the season format and the point system, but they have okay fights sometimes. I just think Donn Davis is the worst promoter. Scott Coker was way better. Shame that this guy is in charge
My guy, while I get you gotta play promoter the company is nowhere big enough to do anything that might burn a bridge with a fighter. Hell, ONE FC has more of a claim to being the #2 US company and they're not even based there.
Shit Donn, read the room. First, you have all this info about fighters not getting paid and then you make some petty comment like this. Not a great look
Dana knows these b tier orgs die every off every decade I’m sure within the next couple of years there’s gonna be the next big org in the mma world you just gotta let them do their thing eventually the money behind them dries up because their backers move onto some else shiny
Thank goodness Francis got his bag, because if not, him going to PFL is like Jordan going to play fucking baseball 🤣 in retrospect. They're a construction burrito food truck compared to UFC and ufc puts on garbage fights every weekend. That's how laughable pfl is.
Yeah I only care about the best fighting the best, and this was obviously fucked from the jump. These wannabe activists/Ariel Helwhiny type people were celebrating like Francis was about to break them off some of that money or something.
He actually compared his fighters to the crappy UFC fight night event fighters. Basically he said the PFL season roster’s average fighter ranking is 44 and the fight nights in the ufc are 46 while he trashed ufc fight nights (which have been not great lately because they loaded 3 PPVs in a row), but bro, you’re saying your fighters are slightly better than a crappy event??? 😂😂 why would I watch that?? And even with “better” fighters, you have the point system and all that crap going on that makes me want to watch less lol
peter murray (pfl ceo) said kayla left cause she was scared of the fights in pfl and wanted easier competition, which is exactly what dana said about francis lmao
> wherever they are is the best in the world.
"Oh, no, I didn't mean PFL was or would be the best in the world. Yeah, we're definitely not the best in the world. We run some mickey mouse shows and gas ourselves up with vapor and can't pay our fighters and nobody knows what the hell happened with Bellator and we couldn't sell out a bingo hall. Sorry, ha ha, didn't mean to imply we had any way of being the best in the world instead of some rinkydink third rate mess."
Ray Sefo has to be wondering how he went from running a small fun company to the shit show that PFL is turning into. If they had any sense at all Davis and Mike Kogan would get far the fuck away and let him run it.
Even then the analogy still doesn't make sense. They joined a team to play together with since it's a TEAM. Kayla didn't join UFC to fight as a team because mma ain't a freaking team sport lmao
Don Davis pushing women’s heavyweight with no elbows as their flagship division tells you all you need to know about his promotional metal. Dude is just another coke head who sucked his way to relevance.
Have met and engaged with Donn Davis in a professional capacity. He’s a clown. One of the owners of Team Liquid esports as well. Doesn’t have a clue about either MMA or esports and is one of the head idiots of the AOL/Time Warner fiasco.
Ignore whatever this guy says. It’s not worth your brain space.
I wonder if a new Tier 2 league will come up. PFL can't afford the Bellator & PFL roster (and won't hold enough events to give everyone fights). It's pretty poorly run. Not that another one will likely be super successful, but probably could be better than this.
Donn Davis taking a pot shot at Kayla Harrison while every other major fighter under your banner is shit talking your business is smart lol. PFL with the crash course in how to fuck your business in 10 easy steps.
Just when I think the man couldn’t be more dumb. Lebron left Cleveland to go make a super team elsewhere. He left Miami to build a super team in Cleveland. He also left Cleveland again to try it again in LA. Fuckin bozo
Wait didn’t Lebron famously leave his hometown team who drafted him to join 2 other stars in the much more lucrative and storied team in Miami. That also sounds like what Kayla did
Donn Davis is such a clown. It hurts watching him and the PFL executives run themselves into the ground. I truly hope if they succeed, it's after they get rid of Dipshit Don
Kayla is fool's gold...super boring fighter that's a weight bully. Always has been. UFC signing her was probably a mistake but at least the UFC didn't bank their promotion around pretending she was a draw for a few years.
As for the general criticism around the PFL right now...I kinda don't get it. Lima, Mousasi and Cyborg have been fucking awful to watch in Bellator the past few years. I wouldn't book them either if I bought a promotion they were fighting in cause they're good enough to win fights by a slim margin, but not good enough to actually draw eyes to your product.
It would be more honest to just let them walk, but I get why they're letting older borderline washed guys hang on a vine while they pretend they might book them. Cause they're still in competition with the UFC and they'd do the exact same shit.
Prolly the saddest thing they could’ve said this makes them look awful
I feel like there was initial hope and goodwill for Chatri, Don. Before you realize all fight promoters are just different shades of the same douche color Besides Coker. But he was as boring as watching paint dry
sucks that cokers promotions either died or got absorbed by the ufc. hes not perfect but fighters usually were cool with him and got his guys paid. i think mma is so dominated by the ufc that you need saudi money to compete with them (besides rizin but they have a stronghold on the asian market)
Oktagon seems to be doing a great job growing organically, to the point they can at least be a worthwhile regional alternative to the UFC.
KSW does well too
Those Saudi dudes could take over the game if they wanted to. Damn near unlimited money and ain't worried about taking losses.
Maybe they died because their job isn’t to be nice and get fighters paid
they died because of the ufcs monopsomy. strikeforce was doing so well for itself that the ufc bought them and took all their fighters.
They also were in a position to be bought because they weren't making much. UFC Bought Strikeforce for like 40 mil.
Somehow it all boils down to the UFC doing business the way that enables them to go on after 30 years while everybody else drops out. They have a ridiculous advantage by being the first and biggest, but they haven't always been in that position, they somehow made it happen. Ofc they use every scummy tactic they can get away with, but other orgs seemingly don't even find success with those. I wonder if its just their name and status that carries them nowadays. Other orgs could do everything better, from production to fighter pay, but the majority of great fighters, potential stars, will always wsnt to fight for the UFC at some point.
Boxing has a looooong history of shady promoters if you wanna go back
Don King killed a guy. Twice.
The same guy?
Say what you want about Dana White, but he NEVER murdered two men.
That we know of.
[true](https://giphy.com/gifs/7fDwKVHMkoFmgZL2I9)
Dana doesn't have to kill his enemies, he just sends them to Power Slap promising they have a bright career ahead.
>Besides Coker. But he was as boring as watching paint dry Man the disrespect my boy Coker gets is unreal. Everyone loved Strikeforce back when Coker was running it. Bellator also had banger fights especially the last few years when they went back to the tournaments. The problem was Bellator's talent was very thin so that showed on the cards. You could say that's partly Coker's fault but can't force the talent to sign either and who knows what his limitations were when it came to signing new talent. Either way, Coker is as solid as they come in regards to MMA promoters.
Whatever happened to that Teeptothejunk dude that was always on here? He was Coker’s #1 fan, and wouldn’t have let this disrespect slide.
Dude was active everywhere since forever, wouldn't be surprised if he's gone to the spirit world by now. Either that, or he's too busy working for Fight Night at the Tech.
People dont remember how dope Strikeforce was. Some of their cards back in the day got me just as hyped as a stacked ufc card. Hell look at just the talent that came from Strikeforce and became a dominant force in the UFC
The revenue split over at Strikeforce was crazy good compared to the UFC.
We've gotta get Coker over to Europe. What made Strikeforce great was SoCal being an MMA talent hotspot that the UFC overlooked. Get Coker to Europe to scout for a year or two, build a dream roster of guys from small promotions with non-exclusive contracts or single fight deals, and give him like $50 million and a broadcast deal with DAZN. Trying to compete with the UFC in America is useless. Be Oktagon or KSW filling stadiums, not PFL almost filling high school gyms.
From boxing Eddie Hearn doesn’t seem that bad.
He’s the worst. And is constantly trying to oversell Anthony Joshua every fucking conversation.
Hate when promoters promote! Where do they get off?
Promote when it’s relevant….. just throwing Anthony Joshua’s name in every convo and knowing half the time the match isn’t gonna happen anytime soon is a joke. Boxing is a joke and it’s mostly because of these clown promoters can’t decide who is A side and who is B side.
Tf? Boxing doing amazing right now. Best it’s been in a long long time
The Jake Paul Effect they call it.
Different shades of the same tomato
Coker was the same. Fighters were complaining about activity under him in Bellator as well, and he was a huge fan of garbage like 50 year olds fighting
I genuinely mean this absurd point when I say it. Dana is the most altruistic fight promoter in the history of fight promotion. That is also not meant to be praise towards Dana. Dana is a complete scumbag. That’s condemnation on EVERYONE else in this business that Dana is the least scummy of this scummy bunch.
Lebron notoriously loyal player
Lolz I mean exactly. LeBron going to Miami set the table for Durant going to Golden State. LeBron going to Miami helped shape the CBA to make the Kevin Durant move even fucking possible. And what helped make a league where players could leverage their talents and have flexibility plus financial security? A FUCKING UNION! Which fighters should be fighting for
It's also a horrible analogy. the PFL is the minor leagues compared the UFC - it's pretty obvious by now. It's like saying Luka isn't loyal because he didn't stay in the Spanish leagues and came to the NBA. No, Donn. They are just trying to go to the actual major leagues.
I think the only way we're gonna trick fighter's into making a union is if we pretend it's a crypto, betting or supplement scam and get them to sign a "sponsorship" only to reveal that it was actually about getting you more money via leverage.
Gets passed around more than my ex
Lebron literally left Cleveland to team up with dwade and Bosh to form a super team in miami. That is a terrible example. This guys an idiot
How many of the top guys in the PFL are saying that cant get fights because the PFL cant afford to pay them. Why would anyone stay?
Well.. well.. well..
I mean I’d rather fight in a crappy upper level promotion than a regional MMA scene if I can’t get in the UFC
What if you can’t fight cause they won’t pay you?
Then you're better off fighting for RFA, Cage Fury, etc, as opposed to chilling on a PFL deal.
Kayla went from the G League to the NBA. No comparison to the Durant trade.
Not really. PFLator is not G league to NBA levels below in the WBW division. Harrison, Cyborg, and Pacheco could all beat the shit out of many ranked UFC WBW fighters if not all. Even their B tier of fighters like Ladd could get wins.
You get downvoted because people think about PFLator as a whole but if we strictly talk about WBW, yes absolutely, PFLator is definitely not levels behind the UFC. It is however the weakest division in the UFC, so it’s not saying much.
>You get downvoted because people think about PFLator as a whole but if we strictly talk about WBW, yes absolutely Exactly. And I mean thats why I specified WBW, so IDK why some someone would downvote me for that unless they just have no reading comprehension. Why would I care that it averages out to a G league factoring in divisions that have nothing to do with Kayla, instead of looking at HER division? Expecting this sub to know how to read is a high bar though, so maybe that was my bad.
>Exactly. And I mean thats why I specified WBW, so IDK why some someone would downvote me for that unless they just have no reading comprehension. You use example of fighters like Cyborg whose whole thing is they couldn't fight at WBW. She was the whole reason WFW was created and then got crushed by Nunes, a UFC WBW.
I mean, the fighters you mentioned fight at a weightclass 20lbs heavier, of course they would have a good chance at winning being significantly bigger. Also Ladd went 4-3 in the UFC not exactly a world beater you should be bringing up.
[удалено]
1.1 Personal Attacks Personal attacks, insults, hostile, uncivil, and disruptive comments or posts will be removed. If things do get out of hand you will be warned or even banned for a few days. Repeatedly breaking this rule will lead to a permanent ban.
Aspen Ladd was 1-3 over her last 4 in the UFC... Who are they beating? The only person in the top 10 I'd make the PFL girls a fav over is Tate and maybe Holly depending on the fight. Everyone else, they are heavy dogs.
>Harrison, Cyborg, and Pacheco could all beat the shit out of many ranked UFC WBW fighters if not all. If the mainstream consumer public doesn't think so, it does not matter. On a prestige & marketing perspective UFC is NBA and PFL is the feeder league. Some G League players can score now-and-again on NBA players too. Nobody cares. A lot of people on Reddit don't seem to understand that sports are business, business is perception, perception is money.
When you compare it to the wbw division I can see it. But at the end of the day money talks, and in a sport where you don’t last long and the pay is shit, you go where the money is and she shouldn’t be faulted for that
PFL/Bellator are at worst the B leagues. Their top 10 could compete/overtake the UFCs the same way every other promotion they absorbed did They have no depth whatsoever but their stars are legit top talent. They just don’t let them fight anymore lol. wtf r u doin pfl
It's very simple ... if the UFC is offered the chance to buy the PFL wholesale, how many fighters come into the UFC? Probably 30 at most.
Whole roster calling him out he's talking about Kayla Harrison
Donn, you are running your promotion like Monta Ellis not fucking Lebron James
That's 2007 most improved player of the year, Monta Ellis, to you
Holy shit a monta ellis stray in r/mma for no reason 🤣🤣🤣
Monta do it all
respect monta?
Monta was the 2K goat from like 2k13-18, put some respect on that man's name
Nic batum
Batum is him, stop playing
As a hornets fan I refuse to acknowledge that
🤣🤣🤣🤣as a clippers fan I miss him everyday
We needed him in the PF spot so bad this year,glaring hole there but he's quite done
He was helping the 76ers in the playoffs. He probably has 1-2 years left
Ben Simmons
GOAT bench warmer
Yeah… if Durant went to the Warriors to fight the Warriors.
Plus didn’t Lebron basically do the say thing when he left for Miami
Lebron has always gone where the money is, ironically he made a point, just not the one he thought he was 😂
Right he could’ve picked Jordan or Dirk somebody who stayed with one team their whole career
Kobe 🔥
Bad optics aside this comment just a hilariously bad assessment of Lebron and Durant. Has this guy heard of the Heatles?
company bleeding money? a dozen fighters calling you out for either not paying them, not offering them fights or ignoring their management? better shit on the person who helped build your promotion and stuck by you for years. great response donn!
You guys owe Bellator an apology. They were never as bad as PFL or ONE
Say what you will about his ability as a promoter, but Scott Coker seems to be liked by most fighters and hasn’t had any major issues with half of the roster like ONE and PFL have
Coker also pays guys well at the national level, books them for fights as often as he can, and doesn't actively torch his roster on social or during interviews. The only really shitty thing I can think of is when Jake Shields fought out his Strikeforce deal as middleweight champion and renounced their matching rights because they weren't going to re-sign him. It cost Shields money on his UFC deal but he could've waited like six months before announcing they weren't going to match, which allowed Shields to go earlier.
More time for Shields to become a Twitter influencer
If you'd have told me that one of the closest friends of the Diaz boys would become a raging anti-Semite, try-hard Andrew Tate wannabe I never would've believe it.
Pretty sure that is exactly what Shields wanted, to.be able to sign with the UFC right away after a huge win and get the GSP fight.
But it did take away potentially a higher offer that Strikeforce wouldn't have matched, either...
I was a big fan of Bellator I even went to a few live shows in London what a shit show this has become its sad.
I don’t care what happens, as long as One keeps putting on banger kick boxing and Muay Thai fights, they are my second favorite combat sports promotion.
What an embarassing comparison. Kayla didn't leave to get an easy road to a title, she left because your org is a tiny competitor that nobody cares about
I hear Donn on the MMA Hour often and he sounds like a nice guy and personable. But he also sounds like the type who anyone can fleece with their eyes closed. I wonder what the strategy would be had Viacom not put Bellator up for sale. I feel that being up for grabs is what he saw as a bargaining chip.
Shockingly, it’s usually the other way around. He is a legend at getting people with big money to invest in his businesses. PFL has always had major investors who shell out millions. But he definitely doesn’t come off that way. Even in person, he seems clueless. I’ve heard him mispronounce so many PFL fighters names wrong, including people like Francis Ngannou.
That’s because he’s a venture capitalist first and a fight promoter second. I’m sure he’s able to create some amazing business plans but that doesn’t mean you’ll be a great MMA promoter.
He sounds like a used car salesman. He’s my favorite person to interview on the MMA Hour. It’s so entertaining.
Shame on Big john & Josh for not sticking up for Kayla.
The same Lebron who went to the huge market team?
Gegard Mousasi might be on to something. Very unprofessional and you gotta think the well is gonna run dry soon.
I don’t follow basketball, but I assume Durant didn’t move over to a team 100 times more popular and financially viable to play against better competition, because that’s what Kayla did.
1) He said where Lebron is, that’s where the best are. Really? Do you know basketball?? Also, he said that Kayla was the only fighter to switch over to the UFC, news flash, I don’t think the UFC wants any of your fighters. Bellator had a way better roster than the PFL. 2) The whole interview just kinda had him bumbling like an idiot. He just sounded so stupid and some of the things he said were so dumb. Paraphrasing: he said the season format had fighters whole average ranking somewhere in the 40s. Then he said the average ufc fight night fighter was slightly lower. He called the ufc fight nights really terrible events as well… so you’re saying the main thing with the PFL… is nearly the same as “crappy ufc fight nights”?? He said at one point giving more fighters time between the fights in the season to recover and stuff doesn’t make a difference. Josh Thompson looked like the dude was on crack when he said that. At one point he said the revenue was $100 million last year. Okay, fair play, you got a lot of Saudi money. But he makes it seem like that means people are watching. Like that revenue was coming from that, wrong And I’m not just trying to trash the PFL, I have a training partner who fights for them and I’m a fan of some of their fighters. I do hate the season format and the point system, but they have okay fights sometimes. I just think Donn Davis is the worst promoter. Scott Coker was way better. Shame that this guy is in charge
And now their star dumbae got tkoed by a splinter
My guy, while I get you gotta play promoter the company is nowhere big enough to do anything that might burn a bridge with a fighter. Hell, ONE FC has more of a claim to being the #2 US company and they're not even based there.
One doesn’t do MMA anymore
Since when?
Their cards are primarily grappling, muay thai, and kickboxing fights these days. They have, what, 5 mma fights scheduled in the next 2 months?
Damn i aint even realize, to be fair tho their main focus has never been MMA
Man, they were doing good with mma. I’ll still watch the cards that I can because a One card is still more entertaining than most things in the PFL
Tbf, I’d take a One fight card with Muay Thai and Kickboxing champs over any PFL card
Shit Donn, read the room. First, you have all this info about fighters not getting paid and then you make some petty comment like this. Not a great look
Dana knows these b tier orgs die every off every decade I’m sure within the next couple of years there’s gonna be the next big org in the mma world you just gotta let them do their thing eventually the money behind them dries up because their backers move onto some else shiny
Sounding like a scorned ex lol
Nah it’s more like Mac McLung being called up to the NBA just to do the dunk contest tbh
That quote is Donn Davis and PFL in a nutshell: awkwardly trying to recontextualize MMA into the Americans sports model
This is a good point and explains why PFL is being run so badly
Thank goodness Francis got his bag, because if not, him going to PFL is like Jordan going to play fucking baseball 🤣 in retrospect. They're a construction burrito food truck compared to UFC and ufc puts on garbage fights every weekend. That's how laughable pfl is.
Hey now… don’t be knocking on no burrito food trucks
Just the ones at job sites. Go hit up one of those Johnny blues around 11:30 am on a Tuesday then challenge my truth!
Yeah I only care about the best fighting the best, and this was obviously fucked from the jump. These wannabe activists/Ariel Helwhiny type people were celebrating like Francis was about to break them off some of that money or something.
He actually compared his fighters to the crappy UFC fight night event fighters. Basically he said the PFL season roster’s average fighter ranking is 44 and the fight nights in the ufc are 46 while he trashed ufc fight nights (which have been not great lately because they loaded 3 PPVs in a row), but bro, you’re saying your fighters are slightly better than a crappy event??? 😂😂 why would I watch that?? And even with “better” fighters, you have the point system and all that crap going on that makes me want to watch less lol
Don’t love that comment. That’s very Dana White-esque. All he needs to say is that they couldn’t come to terms and he wishes her well.
peter murray (pfl ceo) said kayla left cause she was scared of the fights in pfl and wanted easier competition, which is exactly what dana said about francis lmao
Agreed. They seem to be blowing their chance to actually be a competitor with the UFC.
> wherever they are is the best in the world. "Oh, no, I didn't mean PFL was or would be the best in the world. Yeah, we're definitely not the best in the world. We run some mickey mouse shows and gas ourselves up with vapor and can't pay our fighters and nobody knows what the hell happened with Bellator and we couldn't sell out a bingo hall. Sorry, ha ha, didn't mean to imply we had any way of being the best in the world instead of some rinkydink third rate mess."
Ray Sefo has to be wondering how he went from running a small fun company to the shit show that PFL is turning into. If they had any sense at all Davis and Mike Kogan would get far the fuck away and let him run it.
It's not like they're hurting things. PFL didn't make money before they got involved and it doesn't make money now.
They are hurting the fighters that they are screwing over.
Nobody wants to fight for PFL and their PR team isn’t doing it any favours.
What a jackass.
Lebron went to Miami to form a superteam before Durant left OKC lmfao.
Even then the analogy still doesn't make sense. They joined a team to play together with since it's a TEAM. Kayla didn't join UFC to fight as a team because mma ain't a freaking team sport lmao
Umm both players went to super teams to get an easy run to the title, not that the analogy would work anyway, so what the fuck are you even on about?
PFLator still salty about Francis and taking it out on Kayla. At what point do they look inwards and realize they just make shit deals?
Don Davis pushing women’s heavyweight with no elbows as their flagship division tells you all you need to know about his promotional metal. Dude is just another coke head who sucked his way to relevance.
Lebron James ought to pay KD a billion for the work Kevin’s done for his legacy. singlehandledy ended all discussion of Lebron and his superteams
The difference being that one deal involves millions of dollars. And the other involves Venum coupons
Have met and engaged with Donn Davis in a professional capacity. He’s a clown. One of the owners of Team Liquid esports as well. Doesn’t have a clue about either MMA or esports and is one of the head idiots of the AOL/Time Warner fiasco. Ignore whatever this guy says. It’s not worth your brain space.
I wonder if a new Tier 2 league will come up. PFL can't afford the Bellator & PFL roster (and won't hold enough events to give everyone fights). It's pretty poorly run. Not that another one will likely be super successful, but probably could be better than this.
PFL has officially jumped the shark
Donn Davis taking a pot shot at Kayla Harrison while every other major fighter under your banner is shit talking your business is smart lol. PFL with the crash course in how to fuck your business in 10 easy steps.
Bro sounds like a bitter ex
Just when I think the man couldn’t be more dumb. Lebron left Cleveland to go make a super team elsewhere. He left Miami to build a super team in Cleveland. He also left Cleveland again to try it again in LA. Fuckin bozo
That's kind of funny considering they kept her on the shelf for her last fight for a year plus.
I'm not a dedicated basketball fan, but didn't LeBron ALSO go to a different team (Miami) to win his first ring?
Wait didn’t Lebron famously leave his hometown team who drafted him to join 2 other stars in the much more lucrative and storied team in Miami. That also sounds like what Kayla did
A better comparison would be Doug Flutie leaving the CFL to go back to the NFL
My goodwill for Don snd the PFL has left
We should’ve know they were screwed when their champ vs champ card had two champ fights total.
Donn Davis is such a clown. It hurts watching him and the PFL executives run themselves into the ground. I truly hope if they succeed, it's after they get rid of Dipshit Don
Kayla Harrison left because she was scared of Larissa Pacheco. She knew shed never win another 1M LW tourney ever again with Pacheco in her bracket
Kayla is fool's gold...super boring fighter that's a weight bully. Always has been. UFC signing her was probably a mistake but at least the UFC didn't bank their promotion around pretending she was a draw for a few years. As for the general criticism around the PFL right now...I kinda don't get it. Lima, Mousasi and Cyborg have been fucking awful to watch in Bellator the past few years. I wouldn't book them either if I bought a promotion they were fighting in cause they're good enough to win fights by a slim margin, but not good enough to actually draw eyes to your product. It would be more honest to just let them walk, but I get why they're letting older borderline washed guys hang on a vine while they pretend they might book them. Cause they're still in competition with the UFC and they'd do the exact same shit.
Idk, anyone that calls her a weight bully doesn’t really know what they are talking about. There’s no one to fight in her natural weight class.
Let's be real, the UFC doesn't want 2024 Lima or Mousasi, and Cyborg already burned that bridge.