PFL’s new CEO John Martin may not be a name familiar to many MMA fans, but he has been keen on the sport since day one.
A fan of UFC from their very first event decades ago, Martin went on to earn two black belts in karate, as well as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt and training in traditional boxing gyms. He rose to prominence as CEO of Turner Broadcasting, and in July was announced as the new CEO of PFL.
Within his first few weeks on the job, Martin found himself on stage standing between Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes ahead of the biggest rematch of the year in Dubai. And this is just the beginning, with names like Jake Paul and Francis Ngannou both on tap for fights under his banner.
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Who is PFL CEO John Martin? All you need to know about new MMA boss
Before making his move into the MMA world, John Martin made his name in the television business. A former Turner CEO and Time Warner CFO, the American businessman even tried to buy the UFC on two different occasions.
“I saw UFC 1 and was blown away,” he told Bloody Elbow ahead of PFL in Dubai on Friday night. “I was always passionate about Mixed Martial Arts. I spent 30 years at Time Warner and while I was there I tried unsuccessfully to get my company to acquire the UFC twice in 2008 and 2016.
“Both times for various reasons it didn’t work out, but I’ve always watched with a lot of interest because I always saw the potential of MMA on a global basis.”
During his time with Time Warner, media reports regarding Martin’s net worth fluctuated. One New York Post column cited sources claiming he was worth as much as $60million, although even within their own copy that was disputed as being much lower, and other sources list him closer to $25million.
Martin left Time Warner in 2018 when the company was sold to AT&T for a whopping $85.4billion, and moved into investing in different companies. It was in that endeavour that he met a board member of PFL, who told him to get in touch with co-founder Donn Davis.
“I met with Donn several times and after about the third meeting he asked if I would consider coming to lead the company,” he continued. “I thought about it for a while because I wanted to make sure how much opportunity I thought PFL had to exploit the global opportunities, which are very, very real.
“I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at where the company is after seven years, a lot has been done in a positive way. There’s a terrific fighter roster, there’s a global platform and PFL has about 26 media partners distributing across the world as well as five revenue stream capabilities that are already done.
“They’re ready to go, and that’s a competitive situation that’s not easy to replicate in this day and age. So my skills from working with big companies and really focusing on how to take revenue streams and build on them quickly make me the right person to lead PFL.
“We have to drive all the revenue streams as we try to engage more and more fans around the world. I see a huge amount of opportunity, strong capabilities that PFL has and seeing its next stages in its maturity cycle.”
PFL CEO John Martin keen to stage Francis Ngannou comeback and Jake Paul vs Oleksandr Usyk
While he kicks off his tenure with a barn burner on Friday night in Dubai, the big events are just starting for Martin’s PFL. The promotion enter negotiations next year for US broadcast rights, and have ace cards up their sleeves including Francis Ngannou and Jake Paul.
Paul has been going back-and-forth with Oleksandr Usyk, the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion, about a bout in the cage. And should that happen, Martin understands that it would take place in the PFL.
“My understanding is that if Jake decides he wants to fight MMA, he has a relationship with PFL and we’d be a great place for him to do it,” Martin said, remaining coy on details about the potential bout. “So we’ll wait and see what happens.
Asked directly if that fight is the one he’d be keen to make, Martin responded enthusiastically: “The answer’s yes!”
“That’d be amazing,” he continued. “I mean look, Jake has done extraordinarily well in boxing and I think he’s surprised a lot of people. And I would love to have the opportunity to consider him doing an MMA fight with PFL.”
And when it comes to the lineal heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who never lost his UFC belt before leaving the promotion and defeated Renan Ferreira last year in his MMA return, he expects talks to begin imminently.
Deontay Wilder has frequently claimed to be willing to step in the cage for a modified rules bout, which Martin is a fan of in theory. “That’s a fight that fans would want to see,” he noted.