Lesnar the biggest draw ever is gone, then GSP is gone (probably the second biggest), then Silva is gone and finally Jon Jones. Last two were not know by his draw but were DOMINANT CHAMPIONS ON HEAVY DIVISIONS. Thats always important, and obviously sell a lot of PPV too...
When UFC lost those big draws, the typical thread "UFC is dying..." multiplied even more, and is not hard to understand, UFC was really strugling with PPV. Everyone was saying: The gold era of the MMA has gone, we never ever gona have stars and draws like that (Jones, Silva, GSP, Lesnar)
but now we have:
- Conor McGregor. Confirmed he is a HUGE draw and he is still not even the real champion ! McGregor vs Aldo is still to come, and huge PPV sells. And some more, he is from a light division when UFC never sells big amount of PPV. He is like rising a division normally doesnt sell very much.
- Ronda Rousey, she is not proven to be an amazing draw but extremely popular among casual and women, that's audience no one on UFC now or before could reach, if UFC move his marketing department and could make those people pay for a PPV... HOLY SHIT. That could be out of this earth level of PPV sales. POTENTIAL BIGGEST DRAW.
- TJ Dillashaw... please dont laugh here. His style of fighting is very appealing and he seems to get more dominant every time he fights. For sure he COULD surpass the regular PPV sell rate in THAT division. Remember light divisions always sell poor compared to heavier.
AND !!!... Jon Jones can come back, Silva for sure will come back. GSP we never know.
So, we can say UFC is doing pretty good right now. When the big four were gone this seemed the apocalypse, but right now you can say UFC is not dying, is pretty healthy.
