{"id":39762,"date":"2026-08-06T03:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Jake-Paul-wants-to-challenge-the-UFC-TKOs-response-wasnt-what-many-expected-202240"},"modified":"2026-08-06T03:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:44:43","slug":"jake-paul-wants-to-challenge-the-ufc-tkos-response-wasnt-what-many-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/jake-paul-wants-to-challenge-the-ufc-tkos-response-wasnt-what-many-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Paul wants to challenge the UFC; TKO’s response wasn’t what many expected"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

The
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a>\u2019s parent company, TKO Group
\nHoldings, is unfazed by the recent merger between
\nMost Valuable Promotions<\/a> and the
\nProfessional Fighters League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement that Jake Paul<\/a>\u2019s
\npromotion and the PFL will merge operations under the MVP banner
\nwhile continuing to promote boxing and MMA, TKO Group Holdings
\nPresident and Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro shared his views
\non the latest major development in the combat sports industry.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

TKO’s Mark Shapiro welcomes Jake Paul’s MVP-PFL merger, says
\ncompetition makes UFC stronger<\/h2>\n

The MVP-PFL union prompted questions about whether the combined
\npromotion could eventually challenge the UFC’s position atop the
\nsport. So far, UFC CEO Dana
\nWhite<\/a>, several former fighters and now TKO Group Holdings\u2019 COO
\nhave all rejected the idea that UFC could be surpassed.<\/p>\n

Rather than dismissing the newly formed promotion, Shapiro
\nsuggested that increased competition could ultimately benefit the
\ncombat sports landscape.<\/p>\n

An elite
\nmiddleweight clash headlines PFL Charlotte: Tune in on Friday, Aug.
\n7 at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that clearly on an individual, standalone basis, these
\npromotions, both MVP and PFL, were not necessarily sustainable,\u201d
\nShapiro said on a recent call with investors<\/a>. \u201cNow they\u2019ve come
\ntogether and we\u2019ll see what they can conjure up. What we know is
\nthat competition has always made us stronger and a rising tide
\nlifts all boats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro’s comments were more measured than White\u2019s, who previously
\ndismissed the merged promotion as a serious threat.<\/p>\n

The new company plans to absorb the PFL into the MVP brand while
\nmaintaining separate boxing and MMA events. Paul has made his
\nintention to challenge UFC for the top spot clear. That ambition is
\nsupported by MVP’s early momentum, including its inaugural MMA
\nevent in May, which drew strong viewership on Netflix. Paul has
\nalso teased another major MMA card for 2027, one that could
\npotentially feature his mixed martial arts debut. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ultimate Fighting Championship\u2019s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, is unfazed by the recent merger between Most Valuable Promotions and the Professional Fighters League. Following the announcement that Jake Paul\u2019s promotion and the PFL will merge operations under the MVP banner while continuing to promote boxing and MMA, TKO Group Holdings President and Chief Operating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}