Just 1 Title Fight Currently Booked

[JoeRowe]

DDP vs Khamzat, maybe the most anticipated title fight of the year, is all that's booked right now.

Aspinall, Ankalaev, JDM/Islam, Ilia, Volk, Merab, Kayla/Nunes, Pantoja/Van, Shevchenko, & Zhang are all available to fill out the final 4 PPVs of the year.

I wonder if the UFC is trying to get all 4 PPVs built to do one massive announcement, or what's taking so long to book these champions.

It's just weird how every division has come to a halt with nothing to look forward to.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Fire Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard

 

[Rio Ferdinand]

Fucking Dana and his gambling.

 

[markys00]

This is normal. Nothing to see here.

They typically have a main event planned 2 months out (used to be 3), but their ppv isnt till October. My guess is by next weekend we will know

 

[JoeRowe]

Fire Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard

This isn't a bad idea tbh. Matchmaking has been shit the last couple years, with few exceptions.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

I'm not gonna pretend the booking hasn't been absolute shit, but we did have like 6 or 7 title fights in the past 3 months, so we're only just around the corner from some, so I wouldn't expect them to be booked yet.

But the ones that haven't been booked, or the fact multiple of those above were vacants, is definitely cuz everything is just fucking stagnant

 

[RockyLockridge]

They better blow the doors off with the autumn schedule sometimes in the next 3 weeks

 

[Rhood]

I thought Islam was supposed to fight JDM this year
They advertised on last night's card, UFC Perth happening in the fall.

 

[jeff7b9]

Fire Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard

Fucking Dana and his gambling.

just clean house and hire people who care


Dana, Maynard and Shelby, and I would bet my left nut a bunch of other people whose names aren't as publicly spoken are BURNED OUT and it is painfully obvious.

Dana is just going thru the motions.
He is 100% more excited by PowerSlap.

They did everything they set out to do, their best days of the UFC management/administrative careers are behind them and they are on the backside, post peak, and starting to see the damage of when they stopped being good promoters and their passion for the sport helped to build stars.

They GREW like crazy in the early period when they were ahead of the game and had revolutionary ideas like using reality TV to give the fanbase a chance to care about the fighters for their personalities

They WERE ahead of the curve with social media, and even pretty early to the party with sports streaming.

They are ... STILL DOING ... reality TV.
Your company saving idea groundbreaking idea in 2005, is "OK Boomer" levels of relevance in 2025.

They don't put effort into getting the best fighters anymore.

They have not had any new ideas for promoting in forever.

All the shitty ideas they did to maximize value for sale of the company are coming home to roost-

--- USADA / we need a "clean sport" is a bullshit charade they need to keep up forever

--- super duper gay matching uniforms with no sponsors
fighters with Venom/Reebok assfucking instead of 20k-200k in sponsors

-- WMMA

- The Apex

 

[CroCopsLHK]

I saw one of those shady ass mma news pages on my FB advertising: Ankalaev vs Poatan 2 and Merab vs Sandhagan for Oct 4th

Which is my birthday XD

Funny enough that proposed ppv doesn't do much for me. I feel like both champs would retain

 

[sonhow]

But did you hear theres a fight coming up and its happening in White house?

Get pumped goofs

 

[Minnja]

UFC is phasing out their MMA divisions and will commit fully to UFCBJJ and PowerSlap

 

[JoeRowe]

I thought Islam was supposed to fight JDM this year
They advertised on last night's card, UFC Perth happening in the fall.

Perth is a FN, JDM vs Isam likely for Abu-Dhabi or MSG.

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

Fire Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard

Launch them directly into the sun

 

[Alpha_T83]

Yea I don't know what the UFC are doing. Part of the problem is that every champion wants to take 8 months off between fights, but that begins to be an issue.

With 8 months off, champions can only fight 1.5 times per year (average). There are 11 divisions, but realistically only about 7-8 of them can headline a card alone. Let's say 8 divisions times 1.5 fights per year, equals on average 12 "headline worthy" title fights per year. I went with 8 because IMO, outside of Nunes vs Harrison, WMMA can't headline a card reliably, nor can men's 125 pound. But you can combine say women's 135 pound with men's 125 pound as main and co-main on a PPV.

With, on average, 12 "headline worthy" title fight combinations per year, you don't even have enough to fill 13 PPV events. And that's if you don't have injuries and inactive divisions, like we've had with heavyweight over the past 8 months.

There's really no easy solution to this, other than finding a way to play hardball and force champions to be active and fight at least twice a year. The alternative is filling more events with PPV slop headliners like BMF fights, or putting on cards headlined by weak divisions (WMMA 115-125, men's 125 pound division).

 

[usernamee]

This year has been atrocious. Are they saving up all the good shit for next year some time so they can use it for whatever new network deal they will get?

 

[Kenny Powerth]

WMMA is basically not moving and about half the men's divisions

 

[CatchtheseHands]

Kayla just won the belt a month ago, Volk just won the belt like a month or 2 ago. JDM just won the belt 2 months ago, Merab just defended last month, Topuria just won the belt last month, Shev just defended 2 months ago. Them not having anything lined up so soon after defending is understandable, they need time to heal up and recharge.

As for why Big Ank has nothing lined up my best guess is the UFC is making him wait on Alex for the rematch. As for Weili, she's a 1 fight a year champ now so either she plans on fucking off for the rest of the year or the UFC is planning to make Weili vs Shev next. As for Tom I have no clue what the hold up is anymore.

 

[Siver!]

Dana White seems to have dropped the ball.

But what with promoting boxing events and his stupid, stupid Slap League, I'm not too surprised.

Dude is overstretched.

He should just hand over the reins to Hunter Campbell at this point and let the UFC go.

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

This year has been atrocious. Are they saving up all the good shit for next year some time so they can use it for whatever new network deal they will get?

I'd love to give them any kind of benefit of the doubt like there is a reason this year has been so bad but I think they just stink. Dana barely cares and the bookers just suck. Also most "fighters" on the roster today just don't have the mentality of guys back in the day. Its more sport than fight now.