Daniel Cormier is confident that the UFC won’t struggle to maintain its status as the MMA leader following the recent PFL pay-per-view.
The Professional Fighters League has long looked to establish itself as a “co-leader” in the sport of mixed martial arts, and the promotion had one of its most important events to date this past weekend.
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the PFL’s latest PPV went down. Toward the end of what’s been an up and down first year post-Bellator acquisition, the organization looked to thrill audiences with the likes of Francis Ngannou and Cris Cyborg.
Those two names headlined, competing for and winning inaugural super fight championships. While the Brazilian won hers in a memorable five-round war opposite Larissa Pacheco, “The Predator” rolled through Renan Ferreira in under four minutes to successfully mark his comeback to the cage.
Suffice to say, the card ended in style and with plenty discussing the events that unfolded inside The Mayadeen. But when it comes to the PFL’s production as a whole, many remain unimpressed.
That notably included UFC star Conor McGregor, who insisted that his employer has “zero competition” in a now-deleted tweet during the PFL event.
And during a recent episode of his Good Guy / Bad Guy show alongside Chael Sonnen on ESPN MMA’s YouTube channel, Cormier shared that sentiment.
“It’s competition, but is it really competition? The WWE and AEW has some sort of competition. The WCW, when they were there, was competition to the WWE,” Cormier said. “Conor McGregor spoke on this last weekend. He said, ‘The UFC has no competitors.’
“I felt like, even though we were watching the biggest star outside the UFC, it was never more clear to me that there really is no competition,” Cormier continued. “Is it good that the UFC doesn’t have a competitor that can really push them?”
The PFL appears more than happy with how the Battle of the Giants PPV played out and was received, however. Founder and chairman Donn Davis claimed as much during a recent Town Hall-style interview with MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck.
He painted a contrasting picture when it comes to the PFL’s prospects of becoming legitimate competition, citing his organization’s “research” to state that the viewership figures for the Oct. 19 card outperformed those of every UFC event of 2024 thus far.
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