PFL co-founder Donn Davis, admittedly, had a rough 2024 running the promotion.
Don’t take our word for it. Take his.
Donn Davis took to LinkedIn to open up about PFL’s struggles in 2024. #PFL pic.twitter.com/EuzMiIO452
— Cageside Press (@Cagesidepress) January 6, 2025
“Building companies is really hard with many setbacks, filled with uncertainty and pain, requiring creativity and perseverance,” Davis began his post on LinkedIn.
“Most social media posts celebrate the triumphs of success, and I had great time last week doing that PFL post! This post is opposite…this post celebrates survivial…We all took hard punches in 2024 and are still here to fight. We all had bad things happen…and survived!”
PFL took some rough shots this year with canceled events, fighters leaving, fighters complaining publicly about lack of fights, and events falling well short of expectations.
Davis didn’t go into great detail on any of his five points, but did list some of the tougher things that PFL endured in 2024.
“1 Numerous potential new investors wasted thousands of hours of our time, and time is so precious.
2 Big new advertiser agreed to deal and was in final contract, but new management stopped deal.
3 Some Bellator star fighters complained on social media about not fighting enough, but PFL makes best overall decisions considering ALL our fighters.
4 We are growing so fast with our new international leagues that costs in some regions are too high.
5 Major new initiative and expansion is delayed a year by one of our partners, through no fault of PFL.”
Some of these sound like admissions that things really didn’t go very well at all for PFL in 2024. Losing out on a big advertiser, and dealing with high costs of working overseas, may have been some of the factors as to why PFL/Bellator canceled some events in 2024, although Davis doesn’t state this himself.
Bellator fighters did indeed take to social media to express their frustrations with lack of fights that they were promised.
On the other hand you could say this is possibly just a way for Davis to put blame on other factors for some of these issues. Saying potential investors “wasted thousands of hours of our time” and a new initiative and expansion was delayed “through no fault of PFL” certainly makes it sound that way.
All that being said it’s the lessons he learned in 2024 that have him sounding pretty positive as the promotion enters 2025.
“Like all entrepreneurial companies when faced with issues . . . PFL battled, navigated, solved, improved.
PFL enters 2025 in our BEST POSITION EVER!
Do NOT let others foil you, keep you down, stop you.
To ALL entrepreneurs – you survived – declare victory!”
