What's Next for Dakota Ditcheva and the PFL After the Jake Paul Deal?

The MMA landscape is shifting, and PFL CEO Jon Martin is at the helm of an organization poised to become the sport's undisputed number two. While a case could have been made for the PFL before, the recent merger announcement with MVP seems to have fast-tracked its development, setting it up to enter 2027 with full momentum.

On Thursday, Martin revealed that the new calendar year will also bring a change in the organization's branding.

"We're going to start working on integrating the two organizations now," Martin told Home of Fight. "Our goal is to be fully unified and have the product rebrand be a reality by January 2027. We will continue to crown PFL champions through the end of this year. But obviously, we're already thinking as one company. The official transition to MVP will happen on January 1st."

Following Thursday's announcement, many questions remain, but perhaps the biggest is where fans will be able to watch the events. MVP MMA held one event on Netflix in 2026, while the PFL's contract with ESPN expires at the end of the year and seems unlikely to be renewed.

"I hope so," Martin replied when asked about a potential partnership with Netflix. "I can't say much more on the topic, other than I believe this merger will attract enormous attention, whether we're talking about Netflix or other television and streaming partners."

"For anyone who wants to work with us, there's an opportunity to consider together what real prospects we have and what kind of events we can now organize with the PFL's strong roster, MVP's leading presence in women's boxing, and the massive pay-per-view events the company has successfully organized not just once or twice, but repeatedly. I'm looking forward to those conversations. I'm extremely excited."

Regarding how and why the merger came about, Martin described a situation where he believes each organization brings different strengths to the table. The PFL organizes events worldwide and has an established roster of fighters. MVP, on the other hand, has achieved massive publicity and strong promotion under the leadership of Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian.

"This is a global business," Martin stated. "At PFL, we've successfully held events in 14 countries across four continents. This year alone, we will visit 11 different countries. We've actually held events in more international locations than MVP. Of course, their events were on Netflix and thus reached a global audience. They are global from one perspective, and we are from another. I think combining these capabilities is an extremely powerful combination."

As for the current PFL champions and their status, Martin explained that the details are still being worked out. However, he believes the most likely scenario is that the fighters will retain their champion status during the transition from PFL to MVP.

"We'll probably use the rest of this year to fully integrate the two companies," Martin said. "I assume, although we haven't made an official decision or announced it yet, that on January 1st we will present everything under the new brand. Again, we haven't fully decided. But if you're a PFL champion, you'll most likely become one of the first MVP champions, and we'll just continue from there."