Netflix might be finished with MVP MMA after exactly one card, and Nakisa Bidarian spent Thursday morning making sure nobody confuses that with Jake Paul being finished. Combat sports insider Blake Avignon reported, per MMA Mania, that the streamer is unlikely to host another MVP MMA event unless the promotion brings a main event on the level of Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones. That fight is off the table for now because Jones is still under UFC contract.
Bidarian, MVP’s co-founder and CEO, answered the rupture chatter on X on Oct. 22. “Jake Paul update: We are actively negotiating with 4 potential opponents for Jake’s return to boxing in late 2026/ early 2027,” he wrote. “Based on the opponent we will determine the location and distribution.”
Read that second sentence again. Netflix gets no guarantee there. Paul fights either way, and the opponent picks the platform. Paul recently posted a fresh hit list featuring Canelo Alvarez, Ngannou and Conor McGregor. MMA Mania noted that Ngannou is the only one of the three who seems interested in fighting him.
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Why the Netflix Door Is Wobbling
This one is about Netflix’s boardroom. The company’s stock has dropped almost 30% over the last six months, which brought layoffs and a corporate restructuring. MMA Mania reported that Netflix fired half its executives after quarterly reports showed slowing growth and rattled investors, meaning many of the people MVP built its deals with are gone. Insiders are saying MVP’s access to the network is in jeopardy. Other reports point the opposite direction, saying Netflix wants to expand its sports offerings and special one-off events. The new executives running the content pipeline have only been in their jobs a few days, so nobody inside knows the final answer yet either.
The partnership has been good business. MVP and Netflix have done four events together, starting with Paul vs. Mike Tyson in November 2024, then Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 3, Paul vs. Anthony Joshua and finally Rousey vs. Gina Carano. That last one, held May 16, 2026 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, was the first live MMA event in Netflix history. Rousey finished Carano with an armbar in their featherweight bout, and the show pulled strong numbers, which is why the report caught people off guard.
MVP never went all in on one network. The promotion has also run events with DAZN, ESPN and Sky Sports. Bidarian came up as a UFC executive and oversaw the promotion’s sale to IMG/Endeavor back in 2016, so he has sat across the table from bigger fish than a streaming company in the middle of a reshuffle.
My take: asking for Ngannou vs. Jones as the price of admission is a polite way of saying no thanks while leaving the door cracked. MMA Mania floated the obvious counteroffer, which is Paul’s own MMA debut, and that’s the only card in MVP’s building that moves Netflix’s needle the way Tyson did. I love that Bidarian’s post basically tells the new suits the fight goes to whoever pays. If one of those four opponents turns out to be Ngannou, Netflix’s fresh executive team gets its first big decision before they’ve even unpacked their desks, with the window Bidarian named running from late 2026 into early 2027.
