John McCarthy and Josh Thomson don’t think UFC CEO Dana White is worried about PFL or any other MMA promotion for that matter.
The PFL bought Bellator and merged the two promotions, and PFL leader Donn Davis said it made the promotion the co-leader with the UFC. However, McCarthy doesn’t think White cares about what PFL is doing as he’s only worried about the UFC.
“Does the UFC notice what PFL and Bellator are doing? Of course, they do. They are a smart business they are going to know what other people in their landscape are doing, are being successful with, are intruding upon, all these things,” McCarthy said on his Weighing In podcast. “They are going to be up on it and knowing. But, do I look at it and think they are worried about it, no not at all. They manage their business, they manage their business really well and they have their ideas and their goals of what they want to achieve in the year 2024. They know what direction they want to go.”
White has spoken publicly about PFL and Bellator but has taken shots at them over the sale as he claimed both promotions can’t sell tickets.
Josh Thomson says Dana White isn’t worried about PFL
Along with John McCarthy, Josh Thomson also claims Dana White isn’t worried about any other promotion. Instead, White not caring about anything has allowed the UFC to get as big as possible.
“He knows when they are at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago it is a venue we can go to now because we can sell it out probably because Bellator sold it out. There are areas they pay attention to see what the market is and if is it worth going to that market. Also, they potentially will go there six months ot a year after to not flood the market, giving it time to breathe, but the last thing you remember was the UFC there, not a Bellator show. Dana knows what he’s doing. Do I think he’s worried about PFL and Bellator? No, he doesn’t need to be. They do their own thing, PFL and Bellator do their own thing,” Thomson said.
Thomson does make a good point that White and the UFC may look at certain locations other MMA promotions go to, but outside of that, he doesn’t think White is worried about what PFL is doing.
