Nakisa Bidarian believes that what his promotion pulled off last Saturday is something the competition can’t easily match.
The Most Valuable Promotions co-founder, working alongside Jake Paul, marked their entry into MMA with a strong showing in California.
Among those in attendance, 17 million watched on Netflix. And Bidarian doesn’t think the UFC’s upcoming White House card can reach similar numbers.
It comes as the UFC prepares for an event at the White House on July 27, hosted by former US President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden.
Nakisa Bidarian casts doubt on UFC’s ability to match MVP MMA’s Netflix numbers
In the build-up to MVP MMA’s debut event on Netflix, the UFC found itself in the spotlight, with several fighters from Most Valuable Promotions taking aim at the established leader in mixed martial arts.
Fans began drawing comparisons between MVP’s card and the UFC White House event, which is scheduled for June 14 and features title defences from Ilia Topuria and Alex Pereira.
Rousey dismissed it outright, saying it “sucks,” though plenty of fans found that claim hard to take seriously given the strength of UFC 303.
There were also questions about what kind of viewership figures those same names might have produced if a similar fight card had aired through more traditional pay-per-view channels rather than on a global streaming platform like Netflix.
Bidarian made his position clear during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“The question is: if you put the (UFC) White House card on Netflix, does it do as well as what we did on Saturday night? I don’t believe it does,” said Bidarian.
“I think the magic of it was with the names that we had. The partnership of MVP and Netflix is what made it so powerful.”
He added: “I think they [Netflix] are very happy with the outcome.”
The idea has been met with resistance among sections of social media. Given how much buzz a crossover between two giants like Netflix and UFC would create, there are already doubts forming around his prediction that even Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano would win out over White House Card viewership numbers.
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