After more than three years as WSOF and PFL executive, Carlos Silva is stepping down to become CEO of World TeamTennis.

PFL officials declined comment on the departure and referred questions to Silva, who said the opportunity to join the tennis organization was too good to pass up.

When he spoke to MMAjunkie, Silva was en route to Florida to begin his new job as the head of the league, which features mixed-gender team matches between six franchises from around the country.

“Most people don’t know this, but (tennis) is kind of the most important thing to me,” said Silva, who briefly played professional tennis after a collegiate career at Boston College. “It was a super tough decision, but I decided to jump in.”

Carlos Silva, former PFL league president.

Silva, who worked closely beside PFL President Ray Sefo, said the promotion’s owners are putting together a plan to hire his replacement and added he’ll help out with the promotion whenever possible. He said the PFL’s second season will proceed as planned with tournament winners receiving $1 million and a new women’s 155-pound division.

“I’ve been working with them to transition, and I’m sure when they’re ready, they’ll share the plan,” he said. “But right now, it’s about getting stuff done.”

Although the decision to leave came prior to the conclusion of the PFL’s first season, he said, he notified his team and started discussing next steps over the past week.

“I wanted to get through and have a successful championship, which I think we did, and then to spend some time with my family,” he said.

The PFL, co-founded by hedge fund manager Russ Ramsey and venture capitalists Donn Davis and Mark Leschly, concluded its first season by crowning six new champions with each receiving a $1 million tournament prize. The promotion received widespread coverage from MMA-centric websites but struggled to garner a significant audience on TV, drawing just 204,000 viewers for its New Year’s Eve tourney final.

The promotion didn’t get a fresh start from controversy this year. A widely circulated article scrutinized the promotion’s relationship with former executive and current manager Ali Abdelaziz, noting he represented 30.4 percent of the entire roster, 55.2 percent of regular-season fighters and 58.9 percent of playoff competitors. Silva said his decision had nothing to do with the report and said the promotion declined comment on the story “because it was so absurd there was no reason to comment.”

The PFL’s second season is expected to begin in May after roster selection and training camps. Semifinalists from the first season are guaranteed spots in the second season. Silva has said all PFL fighters are signed to multi-year contracts and has a working roster of 25 fighters, he told Sherdog.com.

For more on the PFL’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.