Jake Paul's combat-sports company Most Valuable Promotions is merging with the Professional Fighters League, aiming to challenge the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The combination comes at a boom time for mixed martial arts, a violent, viral sport central to the conservative zeitgeist thanks partly to UFC Chief Executive Dana White's position in President Trump's inner circle.\n\nTrump hosted a cage match on the White House's South Lawn last month, and Elon Musk, podcaster Joe Rogan and A-list actors often attend fights. The business's growing popularity has proved lucrative: Paramount agreed last year to pay TKO Group $7.7 billion for seven years of exclusive media rights to all UFC matches.\n\nMVP, founded by Paul and former UFC finance chief Nakisa Bidarian in 2021, catapulted into tens of millions more viewers' living rooms in 2024 when Netflix streamed Paul's boxing match against Mike Tyson as its first live sporting event.

Operating under the MVP banner, the new company will remain privately owned with nearly 400 athletes.\n\nMVP historically focused on boxing, while PFL centers on mixed martial arts; the merged company will put on fights for both sports. PFL Chief Executive John Martin, who will run the combined company, has had his eye on major combat sports for over a decade. The former Time Warner executive said he tried twice, unsuccessfully, to persuade colleagues there to buy UFC.