Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions broke the all-time U.S. viewership record for MMA last weekend when it staged Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano on Netflix. Now, according to Yahoo Sports, the promotion is making clear it plans to stay in the sport.
MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian appeared Tuesday on The Ariel Helwani Show to address the promotion's future plans. "One hundred percent, MVP is in the MMA business," Bidarian told Uncrowned. "There is a clear opportunity to create an alternative avenue for fighters that truly represents the best of the sport and is fighters first. Our hope is that's with our partners at Netflix. We've been very fortunate with the outreach we've gotten around what we did and what we accomplished and what we delivered."
No formal discussions with Netflix about future events have taken place yet, but Bidarian outlined what an ideal arrangement would look like. "It depends on the partner, but if I look at Netflix, I would love to be in a situation to have 12 events a year. One per month, effectively, would be the ideal scenario," he said.
Bidarian also explained why he sees MMA as a stronger market opportunity for MVP than boxing. "Boxing is more difficult to own than MMA," he said. "I say own — UFC is obviously the reference brand. They're going to be that for many years to come. But there's no true No. 2 player. Boxing, there's six or seven of us putting on premium big events every single week. So, do I think we can come and take a real share within the MMA sphere? Yes."
He went further on the question of convincing Netflix to make MMA a regular part of its live events programming. "Do I believe we can convince Netflix to do it on a more regular basis than they've shown to do so with boxing? If we have the product and we show them the path of how this can work and set expectations appropriately, and ask for the right amount of rights fees that are appropriate for that, my hope is that the answer is yes. But I will say that there's Amazon, Fox, ESPN. There's definitely other outlets that, once we present them this whole package, will have interest in what we're doing."
Netflix has been involved in live combat sports events since 2024, including Paul's boxing matches against Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua. Bidarian suggested MVP events do not need to be Netflix-exclusive or even on the platform at all, though that would be the preferred outcome.
He pointed to WWE's consistent performance on Netflix as a benchmark. "Is there enough big-name stars, draws, to put on 42 UFC events? Every event isn't going to be Rousey-Carano, but it's about a consistent base that delivers a certain viewership number, right? The WWE delivers 2.5 million views on Netflix every single week, pretty consistently. What can we do that d" — the source material cut off there.
