RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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There is nothing quite like a seismic merger in MMA, considering they've only happened a handful of times over the past 30-plus years. Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian of Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) have taken their disruptor moniker to heart, however, causing the latest shift in the landscape with their acquisition of PFL . Here are the biggest winners and losers in the immediate aftermath of the news.
Winner: Dakota Ditcheva
The PFL's golden girl is now officially their MVP. (Sorry. It was right there.)
What she may continue to lack in worthwhile competition for the foreseeable future, Ditcheva will make up for in dollar signs aplenty. She's already a made superstar from PFL who has established herself as a top talent, if not the company's best. Capable of being the best fit for any company, Ditcheva is primed to become even bigger of a star, especially with MVP backing her.
Paul and Bidarian have put a huge emphasis on women in combat since they started MVP. So much so that they created MVPW, featuring boxing cards loaded more with women than the here-and-there men's matches. That all came after putting on the legendary Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano trilogy. Don't forget their first foray into this space, which came in May, headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano.
As time goes on, Ditcheva's status as one of MMA's most wanted will only grow. And that's about as perfect a position to be in as a prizefighter.
Dakota Ditcheva was one of the best homegrown stars of PFL's existence. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images) Cooper Neill via Getty Images
Loser: Donn Davis
I really don't mean to kick a dog when he's down. But it's got to sting on multiple fronts to see what's happening to the PFL founder's promotion after his departure.
Is it safe to assume Davis is happy to see where PFL is going? Despite that answer effectively being "gone," it is. At the same time, we saw how Davis talked about being co-leaders with the UFC, which was objectively laughable, if not delusionally hopeful. What do you expect from a promoter, though? Either way, MVP taking PFL is a step in a positive direction after the damage Davis and the previous regime did, getting the brand to a point where it considered … checks notes … officially reverting to Bellator.
Ultimately, this merger is a step forward that Davis appears to have been unwilling to take, which would have sent his baby to an early grave, rather than potentially millions of Netflix subscribers.
On the flip side, there is a positive view here, in fairness to Davis, who never needed success in MMA. Without him building PFL at all, we wouldn't be here talking about this now.
Winner: AJ McKee
Speaking of Bellator, life is good for AJ McKee right now.
The former featherweight champion was one of the promotion's final homegrown talents to achieve global recognition as a top talent before it went under. In the process, McKee became a millionaire through Bellator's featherweight grand prix, setting him up for high-paying contracts that initially appeared to be an issue when PFL absorbed the roster. (Just ask poor Gegard Mousasi, whose career is essentially over as a result.)
McKee fought five times for PFL, making his price point difficult to maintain. That led the "Mercenary" to his upcoming matchup taking place in RIZIN for the promotion's featherweight title. It won't be McKee's first trip to Japan, last scoring a big win over the then-lightweight champion Roberto "Satoshi" de Souza. Now, with MVP taking over, McKee enters a win-win situation. Even if he loses his stiff test against undefeated champion Razhabali Shaydullaev, he'll return to a bigger stage than the one he stepped away from.
Maybe, if he's lucky, McKee can even blossom into the superstar he was destined to be until Bellator fumbled him away.
AJ McKee remains one of the best fighters outside of the UFC. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images) Cooper Neill via Getty Images
Loser: Middle-of-the-pack fighters
This is where things get tricky with the merger between MVP and PFL.
MVP made it clear after its debut MMA card that more was in the works. How much more was the biggest question. PFL has been relatively consistent with its quantity, doing its best to balance that with quality. MVP, however, has put much more focus into the latter with high-profile events coming fewer and farther between.
So, how does that make the middle-of-the-pack fighters losers? Well, fewer opportunities to fight with fewer events than what PFL has put on. That's assuming there's some type of exclusivity baked into future MVP contracts, but either way, you need to have a name in some sense to be on MVP's radar if they want to be taken seriously.
Winner: MMA fans
More notably, prominent MMA is always great for fans.
There should be some pause after what happened with PFL and Bellator falling flat in the wave-making department. But MVP has given fans enough reasons to believe it'll do everything in its power to make a splash. Competition forces all promotions to try a little bit harder than they already might. In the case of the UFC, it's lacked any serious threats since its last acquisition of Strikeforce in the early 2010s.
It's obviously too soon to tell if UFC will try to step up its current product value. But seeing steals in the form of signing Salahdine Parnasse — who was a bright spot on the MVP MMA launch card — is telling. Surely, the global MMA giant knew this was coming and got ahead of MVP on Parnasse. That's great for all fighters who may fall into similar categories as Parnasse, but also allows fans to see the biggest and best efforts from all MMA entities.
Winner: Cris Cyborg
The tail-end of Cris Cyborg's career has reached a very bizarre state. No one seems to care, including her own promoter, which is why Cyborg has only fou...
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