PFL CEO John Martin Details Bold Vision To Challenge UFC's MMA Dominance

Before he became the current CEO of PFL, John Martin was a media executive, serving as CFO of Time Warner Inc. and CEO of Turner Broadcasting. In this corporate boardroom role, Martin says he would make just a few decisions a year that were massive and had to be especially calculated.

Of course, the world of MMA isn’t your average boardroom. It is a highly reactive industry, one where news of a fighter’s injury could come in at 11 pm – and that one injury could change an entire week of plans, an entire month of plans, an entire planned fight card.

“We're moving fast, and we've got to be experimenting and not afraid to take risk and taking calculated risks,” Martin said in an exclusive interview with Deadspin. “The nature of being in the live sports business is by also definition you've got to be reactive to change, whether it's you have a card set and all of a sudden fighters get injured, they can't fight well.”

That said, Martin isn’t someone unfamiliar with the combat sports world, having earned a black belt in karate and studying other disciplines of combat. In fact, as revealed in a previous interview with MMA Fighting, Martin once revealed he tried to convince executives at Time Warner to purchase the UFC.

When Martin was brought on as PFL CEO, he immediately hit the ground running, helping to lead the promotion through a reorganization and restructuring. The biggest of these changes was the end of the “World Tournament” format, which itself was a change from the “regular season and playoffs” format PFL had since 2018. As Martin noted, while the PFL would sell out notable arenas outside the U.S., the World Tournament's focus in the U.S. made things look “more of a studio show,” with not all of the best fighters competing in the country.

Now, the PFL has been re-envisioned into a streamlined format where the best will fight the best, with a mission to close the gap between the UFC and the alternative products vying for the No. 2 MMA promotion spot.

“I had to satisfy myself that the UFC was not going to be really a one, a winner-take-all in the global mixed martial arts category,” Martin said. “When you look at the size of the global audience, estimated to be the third-largest in the world, and the restrictive number of live MMA premium events that occur today, only being around 80 – and you compare that to soccer matches and professional basketball games, and, even in the US, professional baseball, there’s hundreds and hundreds of competitions in each of these sports that fans can can tap into. That just doesn't exist with MMA.

“If we could have the second-best fighter roster in the world, which we do, and showcase those fighters and exciting professionally produced events, which we're doing, make a bigger push, more emphasis in the United States, which we're doing, I thought that we stood a really, really good chance of being successful.”

This hope of being able to grow the PFL brand under the new John Martin vision, and solidify PFL as a leader in MMA, played into the decision of eliminating the World Tournament format. Now, thanks to the goal of creating a clearer product for fans, the PFL has a standardized, rankings-driven matchmaking system.

And according to Martin, there has been success to be found throughout his first year as the head of PFL. In particular, he highlighted a capital raise and increase in US broadcast ratings, as well as sold-out arenas for PFL events.

“Trying to be strategic about event locations and where to house certain cards, if there's certain local fighters that may be more appealing in certain territories than others, trying to accommodate that,” Martin said. “Introducing ranking systems, focusing on content and storytelling, raising additional capital for the company, which we successfully did and completed in January of this past year. It's been a lot has happened in the last nine months or so, but I'm proud to say some of the changes that we've put in seem to be bearing fruit.

“Our ticket sales are up this year, year over year. Our audience on TV in the United States is up year on year. We're selling out arenas outside of the United States. We've crowned new champions. We've got three consecutive championship weekends coming up in July. I'm a pretty ambitious guy, and I don't have a tremendous amount of patience, but we've accomplished a lot in a reasonably short period of time, but we still have so much more ahead of us.”

And that includes a major summer for the PFL. The promotion starts its bright-hope-filled summer on June 27, when the PFL makes its first appearance in San Diego. The main event will see A.J. McKee, a San Diego native and former Bellator champion who has gone 3-1 since moving to the promotion following its acquisition of Bellator. McKee’s popularity and entertaining fight style will be put to the test, however, as he takes on the dangerous Salamat Isbulaev, who is 10-0 and comes in off a first-round submission of former PFL champion Jesus Pinedo.

Then, July presents a PFL championship trifecta. PFL Austin on July 18 sees the epic middleweight championship rematch between Costello Van Steenis and Johnny Eblen after Van Steenis’s last-second submission win in their first clash a year earlier. PFL Washington D.C. on July 25 will see the rising Thad Jean take on Shamil Musaev to determine the new PFL welterweight champion.

It all leads up to July 31, when the PFL hits Long Island, New York, for a major event that sees two of its biggest stars in action. Usman Nurmagomedov will defend the lightweight championship against Archie Colgan, and the undefeated Dakota Ditcheva does battle with striking veteran Denise Kielholtz.

“I'm excited to see if the fights stack up, because ultimately we're in the business of trying to delight fans and get them to want to come back and spend time with us,” Martin said.

This also comes as the PFL’s U.S. broadcasting agreement with ESPN expires at the end of the year. Awful Announcing recently noted the different options the PFL is considering, from staying with ESPN to moving to an outlet like FOX or a streaming service like Netflix. Martin, however, says there is a lot to consider, and a decision on the PFL’s home for 2027 and beyond is still pending.

Internationally, meanwhile, Martin has hopes for new locations that the PFL could hold events in, including Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Russia, along with deeper pushes into Asian territory. Martin, in fact, is also open to the idea of doing co-promotion with promotions in these areas.

While the PFL still has region-specific promotions in MENA and Africa, his focus is not on these kinds of regional promotions, but more on moving the roster around the world to wherever a fight makes the most economic and narrative sense. For him, it’s about emotional resonance – fighters in front of crowds that share their cultural background.

It’s all a part of Martin’s vision for a PFL that is looking sleek, aggressive, and global-focused. The difference is notable already – and there’s plenty more room for what could come next.

“We''ve got five revenue streams, and they're all growing,” Martin said. “So, for me being in the conversation as among the best promotions of global MMA in the world is an advantageous place to be at the moment. We just need to make the most of that and not give up any ground. If anything, continue to make noise, get in the conversations, and most importantly, if fans enjoy the PFL, they need to support it. Come out, watch, join the events.”