News I say told you so when I told you so. But this is really about the UFC putting out a bad product

[Poirierfan]

It is. UFC are guaranteed 500K buys from ESPN for each PPV event. And then ESPN gets to keep the money on top of that for any additional buys. But almost no PPVs even each close to that amount. So ESPN is absolutely getting killed on losing money each PPV. They literally are on the hook to UFC for 6 to 6.5 million PPV buys every year.

It's been figured out that the UFC deal is not profitable for ESPN+/Disney. The only question is how much ESPN is willing to lose to build its subscriber base for its streaming service. Probably not enough to justify another giant multi-year contract.

That's what I thought. TS, get your facts straight, son.

 

[Ayreon]

Less fighters, more elite.

Less events, more stacked.

Make people hungry for the sport but give them bangers to watch

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

Less fighters, more elite.

Less events, more stacked.

Make people hungry for the sport but give them bangers to watch

I know we get a lot of average cards but we get a big PPV every two months or so. I'm ok with more MMA and still the odd big event tbh, I watch it every weekend

 

[maximus__]

I was rewatching Aldo vs Edgar 1 the other day, one of the first PPVs I bought. In addition to that legendary headliner the card also had Lil Nog vs Evans, Bigfoot vs Overeem, and Maia vs Fitch. And back then that card was not seen has having tons of star power because Aldo always struggled to sell PPVs and BRs in general were perceived as hard to market to the North American audience, in fact it underperformed IIRC. But holy hell was that a stacked card from the POV of a hardcore fan. Looking it up now even the undercard was solid, had Woodley and Dunham and Green who were all very legit back then.

I would pay if it was cheaper or if I couldn't;t get a better quality stream 99% of the time.
I pay for Fight pass. Just charge me more for that and put it on there live. That way the UFC builds it's own platform.
People would happily pay $20-30 a month in their equivalent currency. That's 240-360 a year or the equivalent of 4-5 PPVs.

 

[drphil]

I said that Fox was happy to end their relationship with the UFC because Fox was losing money. A great many on Sherdog called me unflattering names.
I said that Reebok was happy to end their relationship with the UFC because they didn't get anywhere near recouping the $70 mil they paid to the UFC for exclusive sponsorship. Sherdog once again flamed me.
I've been saying for over a year now that ESPN is not happy with the UFC because the UFC ppv aren't selling. ESPN guarantees the UFC 300,000 ppv buys for every event they put on. ESPN is the one holding the bag or reaping the benefits from actually selling ppvs. If it undersells then ESPN is fucked for that event. If it oversell then they reap the rewards. Sherdog said I didn't know what I was talking about.

I'm sitting at work early with about 20 minutes to kill and Google tells me that I'd be interesting in this article.

Another Twist Amid ESPN Contract Expiry as Dana White and UFC’s $1B Demand Gets Clear Message From Netflix CEO

As the ESPN deal is coming to an end, Dana White and Co. received a hint as to what Netflix thinks about acquiring UFC's broadcast rights.

www.essentiallysports.com

ESPN, on the other hand, wasn’t happy about the plummeting PPV numbers either, as opposed to what the promotion had assured its partner. “The UFC gets [paid] 300,000 pay-per-view buys as a ‘buy-in’ from ESPN. There’s no way that ESPN is getting 300,000 pay-per-view buys out of every pay-per-view, from what I was told…ESPN is frustrated because they’re not getting the pay-per-view buys that they had expected,” the New York Post’s Erich Richter had said.

Basically everything I've been saying and people have been calling me crazy (not everyone but the vast many) about I'm actually right about.

But this isn't about me. This is really about the shit product that the UFC puts on and the fact the consumers are punishing the UFC by not buying the product anymore. How can the UFC fix this issue?

Even in the late 00s the UFC could pull 300K ppv easy. In 2025 they struggle to make that number

They need to get paid for a product and a certain amount of events and do away with ppv.

 

[drphil]

Ufc’s product has definitely been getting worse lately as they’ve been trying to develop new talent instead of signing fighters who are already legitimate talents. One of the reasons for this is there’s not a lot of elite companies left to poach fighters from. They can’t just raid Strikeforce or Pride anymore and I think overall the sport just doesn’t have as many people interested in becoming fighters anymore in general. With that said, it’s easier than ever to get into the ufc as a fighter these days. They’ll literally take anyone if they have a good showing on the contender series and put them on the undercard. The other issue for the ufc is they are getting absolutely killed by streamers. Back in the day it was far tougher to find a good stream and you had to either go to the bar or buy the ppv full price and bring over some buddies for a watch party if you couldn’t afford it. The ufc isn’t going to load up their cards anymore when the fans can just hop online and watch it for free. I believe that’s one of the reasons why they went with the ESPN+ deal, because they were guaranteed money regardless of ppv sales.

Holy wall of text batman!

 

[Pierced7681]

Holy wall of text batman!

Yea I should’ve used paragraphs but I type this shit on my phone and I’m too lazy to break them up lol

 

[jeskola]

disney seems to have no problem with lighting money on fire with constant reshoots and script rewrite delays on woke flops like hoe white and the 7 90s CD- rom Dos game cutscene tier CGIs, Captain america with no captain america, Little spermaid, the list goes on and on, yet sticking 2 rednecks together in a cage to beat eachother up is too much for them and they want out... while they still have doomed woke flops in the pipe like like Feminstastic 4 movie franchise reboot 3rd time wont be the charm, with a gender and race swapped silver surfette?

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Less fighters, more elite.

Less events, more stacked.

Make people hungry for the sport but give them bangers to watch

It's the MMA as a Drug theory encapsulated.

Ideally you give people a smaller amount of the product, that is exceptionally high-quality, and you make it so they have to wait a fair bit to re-up so they are always fiending for more. In that model demand will always outweigh supply, so you can look to hook more and more people as they get a taste of the product.

Instead the UFC is flooding the market, with an incredibly cut/watered down product, and making it so there is always another hit that is likely garbage just around the corner. In this version most of the junkies realize their blue magic has been swapped for methadone and just go cold turkey, and anyone new who gets a taste ends up with a bunk ass high and wants nothing to do with it.

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

I pay for Fightpass cuz it's easier for me than looking around for all the old fights I love to watch. But in this day and age, with all the other options to get around it, why the hell would anyone pay 80 bucks for a UFC PPV?

People pirating PPV's are not why the UFC pays its fighters peanuts (solid alliteration right there).

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

I would pay if it was cheaper or if I couldn't;t get a better quality stream 99% of the time.
I pay for Fight pass. Just charge me more for that and put it on there live. That way the UFC builds it's own platform.
People would happily pay $20-30 a month in their equivalent currency. That's 240-360 a year or the equivalent of 4-5 PPVs.

I had fight pass, subscribed to it because I thought that's where fights would be. Turned out I had to subscribe to espn+ instead. Fight pass I thought was a great concept and used it to rewatch all the old PRIDE tournaments in HD, then canceled. If it worked like you said, it would be an easy buy for me. Just canceled ESPN the other week because I don't feel like spending $150 a year or whatever it is on a service that doesn't fucking work half of the time.

Even Frankie Edgar hates ESPN. Even Frankie Edgar has to pay to watch fights, which makes me sad.

As a former champion, he should get a lifelong fightpass for all fights everywhere.

 

[usernamee]

I know we get a lot of average cards but we get a big PPV every two months or so. I'm ok with more MMA and still the odd big event tbh, I watch it every weekend

Not really. The PPVs have been seriously weak as well. Just look at what we've had lately and what we've got coming up.