Former ONE Championship exec Loren Mack has eye on helping Professional Fighters League expand into Asia
- PFL’s new vice-president of communications hopes to tap into the ‘incredible’ talent pool in Asia after leaving Singapore-based ONE
- ‘I saw how bad the athletes in Asia want to fight on an international global scale, and I think that’s gonna work well for the PFL,’ says Mack
Former ONE Championship executive Loren Mack has an eye on helping the Professional Fighters League expand into Asia after joining the US-based promotion this week.
New York-native Mack spent 10 years in Asia, helping Singapore-based martial arts promotion ONE get its operations off the ground. “I’m extremely proud of what my team and I did in my time there,” Mack, who will act as vice-president of communications for the PFL, told SCMP MMA. “But I was looking for new and exciting opportunities.”
The PFL, formerly the World Series of Fighting, presents MMA through a league format with a regular season, playoffs and championship bouts, and the winners in the six weight classes each get US$1 million. The promotion signed a two-year broadcast deal with ESPN in 2019, and now going global could be the next step.
“In regards to who they have their eyes on, Ray Sefo is the best in the business, a former fighter himself in K-1, an incredible kick-boxer. He’s in charge of recruiting all the talent,” Mack said.
“I’ve definitely got in his ear – living 10 years in Asia, I saw how incredible the talent is there and how bad the athletes want to fight on an international global scale, and I think that’s gonna work well for the PFL and future athletes out of Asia.”
The 2019 PFL season played out at Nassau Coliseum in New York, the Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and the Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
But Mack said the promotion is looking into holding events outside the US in the future, after putting on its first International Qualifier Series show with Russian Cagefighting Championship in February in Ekaterinburg, ahead of the 2020 PFL season (which was ultimately cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic).
“The PFL has already started their international expansion,” Mack said. “Their athlete roster is from 25 countries around the world and growing. They partnered and held an event in Russia and they’re looking to do more of that. We’re broadcast in 160 countries.
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“With the PFL, what’s so unique is their league format, that’s something I really found in Asia was missing. A fan couldn’t really follow an athlete from beginning, middle and end. At the end if you win the tournament, it’s a million dollar prize.
“I believe the mainstream audience is already taking off in North America, I think it will be the same for Europe and Asia. It’s something that constantly came up in my time in Asia.
“The PFL production model bar none is the best out there, backed by George Greenberg, a 16-time Emmy award-winning producer. The live show of PFL is unreal, man, unmatched. I think that’s gonna play very well in Asia.”
For Mack, it’s a journey that has come full circle back to Las Vegas.
“I started with the UFC at a young age. I learned a tonne from Dana White, especially his incredible understanding of the consumer,” he said.
“I look at Peter Murray who is CEO of PFL, he’s by far most seasoned executive to ever get involved in combat sports. I’m really excited to learn from him, but absolutely I’m gonna take some of my experience from Asia and North America, and time spent in Europe and even time I’ve spent in Africa and Latin America, and really apply that to everything the PFL is doing.
“We have an incredible distribution platform with ESPN, they’re already doing amazing things for their OTT platform. I’m really looking forward to apply my skill set and continuing to grow the brand globally.
“It’s the world’s most innovative and fastest growing league, and the use of proprietary technology is bar none. Some of the highest level you’ll see in sports, and it’s just the start.”