PFL Stands Out in Pro Sports

Since graduating from the University of Michigan’s law school in 1988, Donn Davis has spent his career working in the sports, media, technology and entertainment industries. He’s held numerous high-profile jobs, including serving as general counsel to the Chicago Cubs and later as a senior executive at America Online’s internet business group in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he and AOL co-founder Steve Case launched Revolution, a Washington, D.C.-based investment firm.

Davis is a sports fan and keeps track of the latest business trends, but he didn’t know much about mixed martial arts until July 2016 when a group led by Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. acquired the Ultimate Fighting Championship for $4 billion.

“It was clear MMA was big,” Davis said.

That deal piqued Davis’s interest, and less than a year later he, longtime investor Mark Leschly and veteran financier Russ Ramsey led a group that acquired the World Series of Fighting, an MMA promotion. Last year, the WSOF was re-launched as the Professional Fighters League with a new format aimed at resembling more mainstream sports leagues such as the National Football League, Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association.

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