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Speaker 1: Let's also bring in some m and a activity in

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Speaker 1: the world of mixed martial arts, in particular because the

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Speaker 1: Professional Fighters League is buying rival Bellator MMA. It's part

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Speaker 1: of a push to take on the Ultimate Fighting Championship

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Speaker 1: better known as the UFC. So for more on this

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Speaker 1: deal what lies ahead for PFL, we are joined now

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Speaker 1: by Don Davis. He is founder, chairman and co owner

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Speaker 1: of Professional Fighters League PFL. Don, so good to speak

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Speaker 1: with you. With this transaction, the number two and number

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Speaker 1: three players in mixed martial arts have now combined. What

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Speaker 1: is your message to the number one player in this space,

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Speaker 1: the UFC.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, it's a great day for MMA fans, MMA

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Speaker 2: fighters and MMA commercial partners because now there's a global

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Speaker 2: powerhouse other than the UFC. We have the top athlete

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Speaker 2: roster on par with UFC, whether it's the NBA or

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Speaker 2: whether it's MMA athlete qualities, everything and by independent rankings.

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Speaker 2: Right now, the PFL plus Bellator combined fighter roster is

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Speaker 2: thirty percent top twenty five ranked. That's the exact same

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Speaker 2: percentage thirty percent top twenty five ranked of UFC. Equal

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Speaker 2: fighter quality is the foundation now to true competition in

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Speaker 2: the MMA space.

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Speaker 1: Don is there any risk that regulators might object to

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Speaker 1: the number two and number three players merging here?

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Speaker 2: Now, in terms of a business, UFC still has probably

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Speaker 2: ninety percent market share of this business. But now game

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Speaker 2: on from here, going forward, I believe we have a

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Speaker 2: major chance to create major value from here. The market

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Speaker 2: is still growing in MMA, it's growing about ten percent

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Speaker 2: a year, most sports leagues growing two to three percent

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Speaker 2: a year. So UFC will deal well, but PFL will

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Speaker 2: do very very well.

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Speaker 3: We know don that there have been a lot of fighters.

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Speaker 3: They've been looking for an alternative to the stranglehold the

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Speaker 3: UFC has had on the MMA industry. I am curious

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Speaker 3: about viewers and spectators and the fans. If you will,

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Speaker 3: here is your strategy to actually sort of look at

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Speaker 3: what USC is doing and counter program that. Or are

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Speaker 3: you taking a completely different road where you're going to

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Speaker 3: set up your own schedule and your own I guess

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Speaker 3: strategy going forward?

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Speaker 2: Great question. From the very beginning, PFL has been innovative

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Speaker 2: in different from UFC. Number one, we have the sports

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Speaker 2: season format and the PFL it's a meritocracy and transparency,

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Speaker 2: just like the NBA, Win and advance los and go home.

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Speaker 2: So we have a regular season, playoff and championship. A

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Speaker 2: fighter has to win four times to become champion. In

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Speaker 2: the UFC, a matchmaker decides the fights. In the PFL,

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Speaker 2: the athletes and their performance decides the next fight. Big

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Speaker 2: difference number one. Big difference number two is technology and innovation.

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Speaker 2: We're the most savvy and most viewer centric league, everything

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Speaker 2: from punch impact to real time gaming odds to AI scoring.

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Speaker 2: So two big differentiators from the very beginning, and the

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Speaker 2: result to your question, percent of UFC's audience already in

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Speaker 2: the United States, both broadcast and streaming.

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Speaker 3: What about pay for the athletes?

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Speaker 2: Don Now it's a two company town, and as we

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Speaker 2: all know, in any industry, the worst place to be

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Speaker 2: as a one company town. So PFL now is open

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Speaker 2: for business on a global scale. We pay the same

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Speaker 2: as UFC does, but in addition, fighters get a one

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Speaker 2: million dollar bonus if they win our championship. And in addition,

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Speaker 2: we share fifty percent of the pay per view profits.

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Speaker 2: So PFL pays better and PFL provides better opportunities for

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Speaker 2: fighters than ever before.

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Speaker 1: Of course, we've got to bring in media distribution as well,

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Speaker 1: because Bellator events still need a home. I know the

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Speaker 1: PFL has deals with ESPN and Dezonne, but Paramount is

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Speaker 1: moving away from boxing and mixed martial arts. At the

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Speaker 1: end of this year, Showtime is exiting boxing as well.

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Speaker 1: How are you thinking about your distribution set up with

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Speaker 1: this merger?

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Speaker 2: As PFL has secured fantastic distribution, as you mentioned in

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Speaker 2: our first four years, same distribution as UFC in the

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Speaker 2: US on a global basis, all premium, all broadcasting streaming.

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Speaker 2: We will do the same for Bellotour. Bellator has not

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Speaker 2: had that quality of distribution. We will get that for

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Speaker 2: them starting in twenty twenty four. What we are announcing

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Speaker 2: is a brand new product for Bellatour, reimagined and revitalized

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Speaker 2: the International champions Series, eight major events a year, all

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Speaker 2: in the biggest cities of the world. Every event will

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Speaker 2: have two championship fights. So we believe our reimagine Bellotour

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Speaker 2: product plus are proven PFL business infrastructure, will result in

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Speaker 2: better media deals, better commercial deals.

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Speaker 3: I am curious. I mean there's been, as you know,

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Speaker 3: from a fan perspective, this sort of holy grail, the

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Speaker 3: idea that even if you two don't hook up. I'm

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Speaker 3: talking about UFCPFL, but the idea that there would be

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Speaker 3: some sort of cross promotion or cross fights I should say,

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Speaker 3: between their fighters and their fighters, kind of setting up

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Speaker 3: what a lot of people would envision. It's kind of

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Speaker 3: almost like a super Bowl of MMA. Do you envision

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Speaker 3: that there is any appetite I guess on your part,

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Speaker 3: but for that matter, on the part of Dana White

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Speaker 3: and the folks over at UFC for something like that.

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Speaker 2: Ever, well, to take the Francis Nagano John Jones fight,

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Speaker 2: which would be the biggest fight in MMA in several years,

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Speaker 2: PFL said we'll do it. Francis Nagano has said we'll

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Speaker 2: do it, and John Jones says he's been interested in that.

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Speaker 2: The only ones stopping that is UFC. That would make

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Speaker 2: more money for everybody. That's what fans want and that's

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Speaker 2: what the sport wants. So PFL is not into dogma.

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Speaker 2: We're the disruptive new guys. We want to just be

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Speaker 2: fan centric, fighter first, and we focus on those two

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Speaker 2: things instead of you know, not invented here or we

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Speaker 2: won't do that.

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Speaker 3: We say, yes, do you plan to stay a private company?

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Speaker 3: You have ambitions to go public.

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Speaker 2: We're focused on building value now, you know, We're on

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Speaker 2: our only sixth year of this mission. We still got

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Speaker 2: a long way to go to build value and to

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Speaker 2: continue to build a sport.

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Speaker 3: Don, I appreciate you taking time for us while congratulations

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Speaker 3: on the new type. I know a lot of fans

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Speaker 3: going to be watching this very closely. Don Davis, Founder,

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Speaker 3: chairman and co owner of the Professional Fighters League,