Manager Rizvan Magomedov, known for his collaboration with Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev and Sergei Pavlovich, shared in a column his expectations regarding the merger of two leagues in the United States – PFL and Bellator.
Previously, a number of publications published information about a possible deal to acquire Bellator by the PFL league, which received funding from a Saudi fund. For a long time, PFL and Bellator unofficially shared second place after UFC in the list of the most prestigious MMA promotions.
— Actively engaged in fundraising, PFL has entered into a partnership agreement with SRJ Sports Investments. It is an offshoot of the Saudi Sovereign Fund (PIF), which invests in all sports projects. As we see, there is now interest in different sports: Cristiano Ronaldo plays for Al-Nasr, Anthony Joshua had two fights in Jeddah and Diriyah. Investing in PFL is an expression of interest in MMA. But if they abuse the Bellator purchase, they will simply ruin a decent organization and waste a lot of money.
At the same time, as a manager, I would say that for the fighters, the merger of the two leagues is bad. There are fewer places to play, less choice, less competition between leagues. A solid player leaves, and on one hand you can count the leagues that make a decent product, pay fighters fees, and put on good fights. The Bellator League has scheduled 13 tournaments in 2023. The PFL hosts 14 events per year. I’m not sure the PFL will hold 27 or more events in 2024. And importantly, it’s even less than the UFC (43 tournaments in 2023).
I’m sure investments in the PFL won’t lead to the league attempting to steal UFC stars en masse. The UFC is not a machine that prints money and then throws it away. For them, it is purely about economics and not about competing with anyone for money. They have a certain formula for evaluating a fighter based on what he brings to the company. If it is mathematically advantageous to them, they will give it. Otherwise, they will fight for it. Any league that simply starts buying champions from the UFC will collapse financially, because they will start spending more than they make. I don’t think that the people who invested money in the PFL and bought Bellator set themselves the main goal of spending as much money as quickly as possible,” Magomedov wrote in the column.
Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
