Jake Paul wasted no time turning a big business deal into a trash-talking war. Just hours after Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) officially merged with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) on Thursday, Paul fired shots at UFC CEO Dana White. He made it clear that this new mega-promotion is coming directly for the UFC’s crown as the biggest threat in mixed martial arts.
Jake Paul Fires Back at the Wall Street Journal and Dana White
The merger folds the PFL’s MMA operations right into the MVP brand. Starting in 2027, the whole thing will rebrand as MVP MMA, creating a massive combat sports powerhouse. Paul, Nakisa Bidarian, and PFL CEO John Martin will lead the charge. It brings boxing and MMA under one single roof, backed by fresh cash from investors. It is the biggest shakeup in combat sports this year, and it sets up the next chapter in Paul’s long-running feud with White.
Speaking after the announcement, he pushed back on a Wall Street Journal report that claimed MVP was looking to pick a fight with the UFC.
He said, “WSJ said that we want to pick a fight with the UFC. WSJ, we don’t just want to pick a fight, we want to win the fight.”
Jake Paul on the MVP x PFL merger:
“WSJ said that we want to pick a fight with the UFC. WSJ, we don’t just want to pick a fight, we want to win the fight.” 👀
(via @MostVpromotions) pic.twitter.com/QlbC1lHckS https://t.co/NzkI3QPAa6
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) July 30, 2026
He didn’t stop there. During an appearance on ESPN SportsCenter, Paul looked right into the camera and called out the UFC boss directly, saying, “Dana, we’re coming for you, baby.” To make things even more interesting, Paul teased that he will finally make his own professional MMA debut in 2027 as soon as the new rebrand officially takes effect.
Dana White Fires Back as Jake Paul Locks In Legendary Target
When reporters asked White about the new merger, the UFC boss completely laughed it off.
He jokingly dismissed the threat on Friday, saying, “Let’s take two organizations that don’t sell tickets and nobody watches, and let’s merge them together and make a bigger company that won’t sell tickets and nobody will watch.”
The 56-year-old added that he doesn’t see them as competition because the UFC is simply in a completely different stratosphere.
A Rivalry Years in the Making
Paul and White have been trading insults for years without ever standing in the same room. Paul constantly bashes the UFC over low fighter pay, while White has always brushed off Paul’s promotion as a temporary sideshow.
But this new merger completely changes the game. Back in May 2026, MVP launched its first-ever MMA event on Netflix, headlined by Ronda Rousey’s 17-second submission win over Gina Carano. That single card pulled in a jaw-dropping 12.4 million average viewers and peaked at 17 million live streams.
Those massive numbers give Paul leverage instead of just talking points. Backed by millions of viewers and a streaming giant like Netflix, the newly formed MVP MMA officially has become a very real, long-term threat to the UFC’s crown.
