Nakisa Bidarian

Nakisa Bidarian (; born January 12, 1978) is a Canadian sports promoter and the co-founder of boxing promotion Most Valuable Promotions, Sports betting company Betr, and was the chief financial officer of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early career Bidarian began his career as a financial consultant for Accenture, before becoming an investment banker for Citigroup, and later Morgan Stanley.

On July 11, 2016, WME-IMG (Renamed Endeavor), acquired the UFC from Fertitta Capital, a transaction overseen by Bidarian.

After the acquisition of UFC, between 2016 and 2019, Bidarian continued working at Fertitta Capital where he was chief executive officer.

In 2019, Bidarian was introduced to Jake Paul by a friend, with Paul making a strong first impression with Bidarian, as he would later go on to tell The Independent, "It was clear Jake was different [from other influencers]." Bidarian negotiated a fight for Paul with fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib, vastly improving upon the initial $500,000 offer received by Paul. The trilogy's first bout was the first ever women's boxing match to reach a purse over seven figures in size.

In 2024, Bidarian and MVP promoted the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson professional boxing match. The fight received 65 million simultaneous viewers. The event was met with some controversy at the time due to the age difference between Paul and Tyson being the largest in any professionally sanctioned match, and due to "buffering issues" preventing many from watching on Netflix.

Bidarian and Paul have gone on to found numerous ventures together, including sports betting company Betr.