It’s been a mixed year so far for the Professional Fighters League, with the promotion’s brass now under fire over controversial comments made in 2024.
Late last year, PFL owner Donn Davis stirred up a storm when he admitted that he doesn’t watch Mixed Martial Arts – despite running what’s arguably the second-biggest promotion in the world.
Those comments haven’t sat well with popular combat sports veteran and analyst Josh Thomson, who has now put pressure on the PFL brass in a fascinating and damning assessment.
Josh Thomson blasts PFL owners over lack of MMA knowledge
During an interview with MMAFighting in October 2024, Donn Davis stated that he didn’t watch MMA because he simply had too much on his plate.
“People who are doctors don’t watch medical shows [and] people who are lawyers don’t watch legal shows on TV,” argued the PFL boss, with former UFC and Bellator fighter Josh Thomson now airing his grievances over those statements.
“I wish that the PFL would get their s— together, the bottom line is that we need another promotion, we need another promotion that has access and can build upcoming talent, and I don’t know if they can build it.
“Mike Kogan is there, so I know there’s potential for the athletes to be built… But do I have faith in Peter Murray and Donn Davis? I have absolutely no faith in them and [in them] being able to get the job done.
“They don’t watch the sport, they don’t know the sport, and they don’t know their athletes,” claimed Thomson, before revealing the shockingly shallow depths of Davis’ MMA knowledge.
“I worked the Riyadh show for them [last October], Donn Davis literally walked up to me ‘Hey man, love watching your fights, I’m pumped to watch you fight tomorrow night.’”
Josh Thomson’s last professional fight was in 2017, he officially retired from MMA in 2020.
“I just shrugged it off like man, if you don’t know, you don’t know.
“If you’re not following the sport, if you’re not – and he’s come out and said, ‘I don’t watch fights, I got other things going on,’ that’s not how you build stars. You’ve got to know who they are.”
Thomson sees a silver lining in Kogan and potential UFC transfers
Despite being highly critical of Davis’ stance on consuming MMA content, Thomson did note that former Bellator matchmaker Mike Kogan could turn things around.
“Mike Kogan can definitely step in and do that. He’s built stars in Elite XC, in Strikeforce, and he’s helped alongside with [Scott] Coker, Rich Chou, and those guys. He can do it again for the PFL, but you’ve got to give him some reigns to go ahead and do that.”
That being said, there are still plenty of PFL/Bellator stars who Thomson would like to see move on from the promotion in favor of finding a new home under the UFC banner.
“Patchy Mix; the 135lb division is the best division right now in the sport, it’s the most exciting and the most stacked. Patchy Mix, he’s the guy.
“I would like to see Johnny Eblen; the reason being is that they don’t even have a 185lb division, now I know they just came out with their 185lb tournament… But regardless, I would like to see Johnny go – what else is there for him to prove?”
Thomson also named Aaron Pico and Yaroslav Amosov as potential headline-grabbing signings; both of whom have entered free agency in the past few months.
The first round of the 2025 PFL tournament kicks off with welterweights and featherweights on Thursday, April 3 – the semi-finals are scheduled for June, followed by the finals in August.