PFL Founder Claims Bellator Acquisition Has Dana White Worried

Donn Davis: The next time we're on here, when people laugh that we're gonna be a co-leader, we're gonna be a co-leader. #TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/Rw5ZHsRjhi

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) November 20, 2023

PFL founder Donn Davis believes the promotion’s latest acquisition has UFC CEO Dana White worried.

After months of rumors, PFL officially announced its acquisition of Bellator on Monday. Davis believes that while White wasn’t previously worried about the PFL, this latest move has the UFC head honcho concerned.

“Everybody knows Dana well enough that he only dismisses things that worry him, or else he just doesn’t comment. He didn’t comment on the PFL for four years because he wasn’t worried. He has commented on the PFL a lot in the last six months. He’s worried,” Davis said during an appearance on "The MMA Hour.”

While PFL and Bellator have been in competition for the status of No. 2 MMA promotion in the world, Davis believes the acquisition makes their roster strong enough to claim “co-leader” status alongside the UFC.

“Thirty percent of that roster is ranked in the Top 25 of Fight Matrix rankings,” Davis said. “This is not ‘Dana gets to rank his own guys. Donn is ranking his own guys.’ As you know, there’s only one group ranking all fighters independently – Fight Matrix. Thirty percent of the UFC roster is Top 25 ranked, and now our combined company of PFL and Bellator is 30 percent. The same.”

While Davis admits that the UFC is way ahead in terms of the number pay-per-view events, he believes the PFL is going to organize better cards on television.

“Now, to UFC’s credit, if you look at the Top 5 in the world, they still own the Top 5 one through five. So-called pay-per-view cards, we couldn’t compete with them right now, which is why we’re only going to have two, and they have 12. But if you say I’m turning on TV on ESPN Saturday night, or I’m going to tune in Friday night to watch this Bellator International Series or PFL, our cards are going to be better.”