Karate Combat president Asim Zaidi rips PFL’s Donn Davis: ‘Stay in the background’

MIAMI – Karate Combat president Asim Zaidi is critical of his own performance as a leader, so when he sees another face of a combat sports promotion making questionable moves, he has plenty of things to say.

In this case, “President Awesome” directed some criticism toward’s PFL co-founder Donn Davis, who is effectively one of the frontmen for the MMA promotion. Davis has recently been the subject of criticism due to the PFL’s handling of Bellator fighters it acquired, his knowledge of MMA, and more.

“Honestly, I hate saying this because he seems like a nice guy – I would love to sit with him and just understand,” Zaidi told MMA Junkie. “Maybe I’m misunderstanding him. I don’t think he understands anything about combat sports. And I don’t think that – if you’re not in this sh*t, if you can’t roll on the mats with me, I don’t think you should be part of it, you know what I mean?

“He’s never trained martial arts in his life. I’m saying this ignorantly, I don’t know if he has, but there’s no way, right? Can the guy throw up a triangle? How is he going to understand what it’s like for fighters to do certain things, or when Patricio ‘Pitbull’ hasn’t fought in so long and is begging for a fight in the prime years of his career? He doesn’t understand that.”

To Davis’ credit, he admits he listens to the criticism and makes adjustments. For example, when former Bellator champion Patricio Freire publicly aired his grievances and requested a full release from the PFL, Davis obliged. The promotion has also streamlined certain promotional decisions such as moving away from its signature season format.

Some of the moves Davis and the PFL have made recently directly address fan concerns, however, Zaidi, who touted Karate Combat’s success in a shorter timeframe than PFL, would rather Davis handle business in the background while someone who has a deeper understanding of the fight world becomes the voice of the promotion.

“He comes from a finance background, which is wonderful, but stay in the background then and put Ray Sefo in front,” Zaidi said. “Imagine this for a moment: Imagine if Ray Sefo was president? It would be really respectable. It would be unbelievable. How can you say anything bad about Ray Sefo?

“Put Donn Davis in the background, he handles whatever back there. He’s a finance guy. Great. But hearing him talk about fighters and fighting, it doesn’t even sound like he watches fights. So, I’m not impressed by him. I’m not impressed by what he says. Dana White is an absolute G with everything he says, and I truly agree with him: I don’t think PFL has it.”