According to PFL co-founder Donn Davis, the ‘Battle of the Giants‘ pay-per-view featuring Francis Ngannou’s long-awaited promotional debut outdrew every UFC event in 2024.
‘The Predator’ stepped inside the Smart Cage for a showdown with 2023 PFL heavyweight tournament winner Renan Ferreira on October 19 and delivered a dominant performance, finishing ‘Problema’ in the opening round with a brutal display of ground and pound.
It was Ngannou’s first time competing in mixed martial arts since a successful UFC heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane in January 2022, and according to Davis, was the most successful MMA event of 2024.
“This event by our research beat every viewership number of every UFC event this year and was very close to (Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk) which was the biggest boxing event in five years,” Davis told MMA Fighting.
Donn Davis: This event by our research beat every viewership number of every UFC event this year. pic.twitter.com/5NIV2GGzgc
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) October 24, 2024
Of course, Davis’ comments got back to Dana White, who quickly called his statement into question. Speaking with reporters at the Power Slap 9 post-event press conference on Thursday, White insisted that the PFL can’t even keep up with Power Slap, let alone go toe-to-toe with the numbers the UFC produces every week.
“First of all, the PFL should keep the UFC out of their mouth,” White said. “They can’t even deal with Power Slap. Power Slap destroys PFL. It’s weird that you ask those questions because I just happen to have some papers here.
“So first of all let’s start with followers — Power Slap has 19.2 million followers, PFL has 10 [million]. Video views, PFL fight week did 326 million. Power Slap 8 did 690 million. PFL fight week Instagram views: 76 million. So if you look at PFL, fight week, and the aftermath, these guys had 76 [million]. Just the week of [the event] they had 68 million on Power Slap and we hadn’t even had a fight yet. PFL’s Instagram reel with Francis and Ronaldo did 14 million views. Power Slap 9’s Instagram reel with contender Isaih [Quinones] had 22 million views. That was a repost of an old fight. The repost of the old fight beat Francis and Ronaldo.”
https://x.com/MMAJunkie/status/1849537646327935470
White didn’t spend much time comparing UFC numbers to the PFL, but he did note that a Fight Night card in January headlined by a rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker had more views than the PFL’s latest PPV offering.
“I can keep going on for a f*cking month here,” White said. “Then, if you want to get into what he said about the UFC, I have a laundry list here. But let me just start with this: UFC Vegas 84 at the Apex beat them. So listen, I understand and I love the stuff that he said. He sounds like Kamala (Harris). He talks a lot but says nothing. I would hate to be one of that guys’ investors. ‘I don’t watch MMA. I’ve worked seven years and have never taken a vacation.’ You should probably take a vacation. You’re out of your f*cking mind, dude. You should probably take a vacation.
“I have a list here. I will have Lenee (Breckenridge) get you guys this list of all these numbers. But that guy shouldn’t even mention the UFC. He’s not even in Power Slap’s (realm). Then today he was talking about how ‘there’s all kinds of combination packages and stuff how this works.’ He doesn’t beat Power Slap in revenue. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in ticket sales. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in sponsorship. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in anything, let alone the UFC.
“It’s obvious this guy isn’t an MMA fan. He’s acting like he’s some f*cking great businessman. He does not sound like a guy that I would want to invest my money with. But good luck to his investors.”
Watch White’s full comments below:
