Why most MMA promotions fail and struggle to develop ? |Mistakes & Strategies]

[Ara tech]

Why most MMA promotions fail and struggle to develop ?
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The UFC is the only organization that is extremely profitable, after all, that is natural, as they were the first to take it to the next level.

Some organizations like KSW & ACA are quite profitable, with stable sources of income, which means that they are likely to remain for the next 10 years. Rizin is doing quite well, Oktogon also deserves an honorable mention. PFL despite having larger finances than Rizin, is in the red. One is also in the orange/red since a couple of years.

Mistake 1 - Too much Ambition than they can afford – Expansion before profit

The first mistake from an organization is the ambition and dream of being number one directly, and thus dethroning the UFC rather than focusing on profitability first, before expansion.

As the more you expand into territories, into countries, into signing contracts, the more fuel of money you will burn, and it is not a sprint but a long term oriented game.

In layman’s term : You don’t have to be number one to succeed, but you have to be profitable to survive.

Profitability even if small will enable survival, and later on will draw more investors to invest into your corporation, enabling a slow but guaranteed expansion.

An MMA organiaztion is before anything it could be, a corporation, and corporation must be profit oriented, not expansion oriented.

It is not about how big you are, but about how profitable you are. So, if you are big and not profitable, being big becomes a disadvantage, because the bigger you are, if not profitable, the bigger your losses will be, the more faster you will burn cash, the sooner you will end up on the red, and you will be forced to have to make choices from urgency :

Option 1 : Reduce the numbers of events you do (One), which would make your organization an inactivity trap.

Option 2 : Reduce the money you pay to your fighers (PFL), dividing 1 million dollar tournament bonus per two).

In both case you are slowing down your pace, because you know you are in the red sprinting, and you know that you will fall apart if you don’t slow down, which means that when you are not profitable and big, the bigger you are, the faster you will burn cash without making back profits, the sooner you will fall into survival mode and getting closed to bankrupcy.

Mistake 2 - Overpaying cans and post prime washed fighters

Many former UFC fighters, legends or not, stars or not, went into others organizations like Bellator(Gone in 2025), and now into PFL and others.

First, who are they ? This a phenomen that is common since the last 10 years. This is an emerging type of fighter.

The world of MMA is ruthless, he is in his 40 or around his 40, and is often broke, due to poor income made out of his career, or due to mediocre money management, if not both, in other words, he is in despair for a paycheck, to milk the left over of money that he can make out of his career. Of course, he did not consider being or becoming a world class trainer and paving the way for the new generation, or becoming a manager, or even a promoter, as they are others options and alternatives to remain in the game. Also, this can be quite dangerous for himself, some fighters have cumulated injuries, especially around the brain, which means that making them fights more and more could be harmful to their health, and to their well-beings.

Let’s call this type of fighter TOPPIHWF, the old post prime injured hungerless washed fighters.

You should avoid signing these types of fighters, especially in big quantities. Paying 500K/700K/900K per fight a TOPPIHWF fighter is a mistake, in most case, and always a mistake when the TOPPIHWF fighter is fighting another TOPPIHWF fighter.

The first question is, when you pay 500K/700K/900K/ dollars a guy, young or old, it doesn’t matter, do you make back the same amount of money that you have invested on him ? On the short term ? No/Yes, if no, do you make anything interesting with him on the long run ? No/Yes, if both answers are no, you are only making a mistake.

Absolutely not, the answer is no, let's call TOPPIHWF fighter like, Tom.

Tom is 41 years old,
4 losing streak
Did not fight since 10 months
Do not draw crowd

Which means that if you make 3 events with Tom as a main event, and gave him three fights, you just lost 1,5 to 2 millions dollars. Do that with ten TOPPIHWF like fighters, you end up wasting 5 to 20 millions dollars.

That kind of fighter draw no crowd. And are good for nothing, expect burning cash, and in 2,3 years, they are gone, they are retired. Gone with the money you invested on them. That is why investing on younger fighters is often better, especially prospect, as in 5/7 years, if you did not release them and if you did not go bankrupt, they would still be there. Would it have been better to bring killers prospects from all over the world then overpaying cans ? Certainly.

Do you want your organization to be retirement home, or a room full of killers ?

Bellator was called by TOPPIHWF like fighters, retirement home, and Bellator CEO Scott Coker at that time, realized his mistake, and stated publicly that he will stop signing old men into his organization and focus on the youth, but that was already too late.


Mistake 3 - Not understanding the two steps of the game, depth of roster, and promotion of roster

Besides logistics, accomodations, attracting investors, visa issues for fighters and staff, and keeping shareholders happy, there is one simple goal : Making Money.

Money. In other words, profitability. And there are two steps to do that.

Step 1 : Have a product to sell

Step 2 : Sell your product

Step 3 : Cash out your work

• Step 1 is having a deep roster, of prospects mostly, and of capable elite fighters. No-one is interested in watching cans fighting cans, and the fans are more and more educated. You just can’t lie to people, even if a majority remains blind to what fighting really is.

To have a deep roster, you would need a recruitment team, the main obstacle is going to be salary during negotations, as your have competitors, that can keep the price up, a good prospect will consider with his manager signing to three or four different organizations, and will often sign with the highest bidder. Then you will have visa issues who can be quite problematic.

• Step 2 is simply promoting your fighters, and most importantly events, their highlights, their stories, in social media, which is cheap to set up and not expensive.

Mastery of all form of social media is important, Youtube/Twitter/Instagram, build a fan base for each of your fighters, no, but for the most relevant, yes.

Bellator was very poor at that, extremely poor passive marketing, in 2020, Yaroslav Amosov was 26-0 4 times Sambo champion, fighting Logan Storley 11-0 4 times NCAA wrestling champion, it was a battle of the undefeated, and a title fight, the product was very good to sell, but was not sold well at all. The fight happened, even some of the hardcore fans who knew both fighters, before the fight, they were not aware of the fight taking place in the first place, and after the fight, they were not aware of the given results. It was only months later, that when they checked their tapology and sherdog resume to peak for their next fight, that they realized that they had fought.

Most UFC fighters who went to Bellator, after fighting in Bellator, some of their fans on the streets would call them, and ask them when they will fight again, even if they already fought a few months ago / weeks ago.

The UFC simply has a monopoly of audience, yes, perhaps, but that is not a reason to not market your product especially if good properly. Create & orquestrate dramas, and beefs, promote fighters well, and do your job. How can you make money out of your fighters fighting when no-one literally is aware of them fighting ? The fighting business, is part of the entertainment business. Marketing is key.


Mistake 4 - Not rating your fighters properly : With ranks & metrics

There are two ways to rate a fighter.

In all organizations, it would be wiser to give each fighter a metric, with the example of fighter A.

Popularity Rank – Fighting Rank

• Popularity Rank : How famous is fighter A. How many people are talking about him, interested in following him, how many PPV will he sells, how deep is his fanbase, how many people care about watching him win or lose ?

• Fighting Rank : How good is the fighter, his skills, and most importantly his achievements. As skills and performances are not the same things as one is the consequence of the other.

The popularity rank do not make the fighting rank better, CM PUNK is a perfect example of that, but the fighting rank increases the popularity rank. A good example is a finishing elite opponents like Topuria, who increased massively his popularity rank with his insane performances and thus his salary. The better you perform, the better you will be popular = More money for the fighter and for his organization

The biggest draws of the sport, were fighters with a high popularity rank and a high skill rank, such as Khabib Numargomedov, and Jon Jones.

In the case of two fighters, fighter A and fighter B.

Fighter A is undefeated, 10-0 with 9 finishes rate.

Fighter B is 12-4 with a 3 fights win streak.

Fighter A has 1000 instagrams followers.
Fighter B has 20K instagrams followers.

Fighter A has a superior fighting rank than fighter B, but fighter B has a larger audience.

It is to know that when signing fighters, organizations follow their social media, as it changes their salaries, and not just records.

To simplify, skills with achievements can build and improve popularity, popularity do not improve skills.

If we were to bring experts, and gave each expert to rate a fighter's popularity rank and a fighter's fighting rank, you would notice that some assets within your organization are more valuable than others.
It is a strategical game on a long run timeline. You just can’t waste tons of money on fighters who are neither popular and especially neither good. Simply because it is a mistake.

The popularity rank and the fighting rank evolves with time, injuries, scandals, dramas, success, winstreaks, controversies and losses.

Popularity as a ranking metric, can only most of time be increased or remain, people are less likely to forget a name, popularity is by nature exponential.

As the opposite of skills, who can go backward, especially when fighters are behind their primes, injured, out of shape, and the ring rust of inactivity.

You can simply rank the fighting rank of a fighter by the results of his last three fights or his last fight within the last 2 years. In fact some will say that you are only good as your last fight.

Popularity is easier to rank than skills of course.

Also, some youtubers in boxing exibitions made solid money, not because of skills but because of popularity. Popularity can attract crowd, but only skills can keep a fighter relevant in the long run. Losses will affect popularity somehow, no-one is interested in losers who keep losing. Marlon Moraes is a good example of that. Despite him being a beast to be reckoned with, before fighting Cejudo for a title fight, he lost 4 fights in a row into the UFC, before going to PFL, and of course no-one cared about his PFL debut, simply because fans have shifted their attention on more relevant emerging fighters.

Ordinary performances must be given ordinary rewards, and extraordinary performances extraordinary rewards, and for that metrics are needed.

 

[Ara tech]

Mistake 5 - Not understanding Soft Power and Nationalism

The organization who understands this the most is the UFC, you don’t want 5/8 of your champions to be russians for example especially if you are a big organization.

You want one from Brazil, one from Canada, one from the UK, one from Australia, one from the US, one from France, etc.

Simply because you will end up for making events in those countries, with a product that will be easier to sell.

This is a reason why some believed Petr Yan was robbed against O’Malley in a close fight.

For example, an organization can benefit from, having diversity in it’s roster, depth is about how skilled your fighters are, diversity is about how much your roster looks like an international airport, which is easy to understand.

If you have a brazilian champion, you could make a main event in Brazil more easily, not just due to visa issue that will be solved instantly for the brazilian fighter, but simply because you are conquering the brazilian market.

The same goes, if you have a french champion, you can make a main event in France, Paris, your product will be sold smoothly.

Patriotism, nationalism, made MMA fighters looking like heros, modern time gladiators, crowds will try to support their fellow national countryman. That love and national pride effect must be used by the corpos of the MMA organization to make money.

This is how One was able to be profitable in a few events, with fighters like Aung La Nsang, in Myanmar, in a country where MMA is underdeveloped. Aung La Nsang, never had an elite fighting rank, nor a huge popularity rank, but because of nationalism of his fellow country men, he became popular enough to be interesting to market in a main event in his homeland country. He bringed crowd of fever nationalist supporter.

Notice that most poor countries, do not have good revenue, as their parity purchasing power is weak compared to western countries, which means that the expensivce PPV model must be set up cheap, and piracy is also common there.

A bunch of five customers in potential, could buy simply one PPV, and watch it all together from a single TV or watch it in a restaurant.

Piracy is a problem, that is too complex to overcome with a simple solution. Nationalism and Patriotism of people, can be enough to sell tickets in stadium, which is a good beginning to start from.

Depth of roster is important, but also diversity.


Mistake 6 - Not promoting your fighters well

Fighters are products, to sell. Once under contracts, even if you got the product, it’s not enough, you need to sell it, and to sell it well is not just to make them fights but to make money out of it.

If you don’t, all you did was burning money.

Burning money could be necessary perhaps at the beginning, for setting the pillars, but you’ve got to be profitable, the sooner the better.

What is the best way to promote a fighter ? The more a fighter is popular, the more he draws crowd, the more he generates money to you, the more he is valuable.

Even if a fighter is not popular, you can invest on him and his image to make him more popular, and thus making him more valuable.

Highlights of fighting mostly, a motivational speech, interviews, inspiring stories, etc. This is done with most organizations, One FC staff was among the first to do it, with youtube short, before the UFC following later.

It is essential to establish a web, of 30/50 journalists into key positions, to relay all events into social medias, that will be relayed back by fans.

To exist, you must be known, and not just be. Because combat sports belong to the entertaining industry before belonging to the hurt business or to the gambling industry.

Mistake 7 - Not relying on the clever use of legends to promote prospect through passing the torch
TOPPIHWF = the old post prime injured hungerless washed fighters.

Never invest on TOPPIHWF fighters on the long term.

A fighter who is 38 to 49 years, on a losing streaks, that cost 500L to 900K dollars per fight, post prime, if you invest on him a shitload of money, it 3,5 years he is gone with the money you invested on him.

If you invest on a young prospect, in 3, 5 years he is still there in your own organization. Even if you had invested a lot on him to promote him, he would still be there.

Never invest on the past, invest on the future.

However, some TOPPIHWF are legends, and if their fighting rank went down due to being old and postprime often with injuries and inactivity of ring rust, they still have something that can be worth it, popularity.

What is that supposed to mean ? They are big names, and thus can attract crowds on the short term, even if indirectly.

The only way to be profitable with these famous old washed up fighter is with a tournament.

For a given weightclass, let’s say welterweight.

Bring 8 fighters.

4 cheaps cans

2 elite prospects

2 old post prime fighters

What is going to happen, in the demi-finale, you can sell the prospect A1 with his highlight against the can A1, and you can sell the famous Legend B2 with his highlight against can B2, if the prospect A1 destroys the Legend B2, the legend would pass the torch to the prospect.

You are using the legend popularity to attract the crowd to make your prospect famous through the highlights of the destruction of the legend.

After, the two three fights, your prospects who are the future would if won, get their popularity increased, and thus their relevancy. And you can release the old washed fighters, as they are no longer needed after the end of the tournament. The tournament must be set in such a way, that it would be the birth of a legend.

This is the only way to be profitable with them. TOPPIHWF may be washed fighers, post prime, injured, they still will attract people, why, because of curiosity.

People will want to know what will happen, and that is the essence of the fight game, the disability to predict with 100 % accuracy what will happen in a fight, as there are hundreds of possibilities, even more in a sport like MMA.

Some people will continue to follow their favorite fighters, due to emotional attachment, or due to patrionism/nationalism. That can be used, as when the prospect will be set in such a way to beat the legend, he would only gain back popularity from beating the legend.

With sponsors, a car offered for the first place as a bonus, and a bike for the second place, can allow the cars industry to support your MMA corporation. There are a lot of possibilities that are interesting there.

The blueprint is simple, bring a legend who is popular even if he is washed up, make him get destroyed by an elite prospect. The elite prospect will get famous by destroying the legend. That can be also cumulated. Never ever make old can fighting old can, that is the best way to burn money.

Have planted agents in all countries that are nest for MMA, to obtain golden elite prospects in your organization before your competition.

Mistake 8 - Focusing from the start on all weightclasses

You do not have to start with 8 weight classes, you could start with only 6, removing the flyweight and heavyweight. And then adding them, as you advance, with a top 5 for each weightclasses.

Organizations located in Asia will have a huge problem to fill their weightclasses above 77 KG.

Asians are usually smaller than american and european countries, due to genetic mostly but also to geography of food type, even though that is changing due to globalization.

In thailand, you are considered a heavyweight in muay-thai if you are above 70 KG. In fact Muay-thai above 70 KG do not even exist.

There are simply only a few of fighters in all combat sports above welterweight in asia, because of genetics making asian mostly be small.
Obviously, that is why One as an organization based in south east Asia cannot rely on asian countries alone to bring a deep roster above welterweight.

SEE LINK --> HERE --> WIKIPEDIA PAGE : Average Human Height by Country​

Mistake 9 - Not studying your competitors

MMA as a market, and with it's economy, will increase per 2,5 to 4 according to some experts. What is that supposed to mean, x2 x4 more times fighters, trainers, gyms, sponsors, crowds, of course, everyone will want a slice, in a world that changes very fast and is getting more and more competitive.

PFL is not profitable. One also. They are struggling and are in the red, while the UFC is breathing comfortably.
Rizin is comfortable, KSW is comfortable, Ocktagon is comfortable, ACA is a bit comfortable.

The conquest of the world like PFL aimed to do, or GFL who miserably failed before even starting, is an utopian fantasy that will never work.

Be a Rizin, be a KSW. Conquer a local national regional area, attract local investors and sponsors, and grow slowly. Be a factory of elite prospects, and send them into big organizations, try to aim for the UFC.

Why, let's say you sign an elite prospect, call him prospect FadiI, if you release Fadi to go to the UFC, and if Fad is succesful, you would win out of it, by uploading Fad previous fights into your own organization on youtube and social media, Fad success into the UFC would benefit you, as his fans and people interested in him would watch his previous fight into your own organiaztion, increasing it's popularity.

To be the best is not needed, to be profitable is. With a few prospects sent to the big leagues, you would have the reputation to be a bridge to the big leagues, which would attract more prospects back. Just avoid deals like the fight pass like, and remain independant.

What Rizin is doing, what KSW is doing, is a good start, and is sufficient from a business perspective. You need a solid foundation to go far and to last for the long term. Brave and UAE warriors are only stable through oil money, and not profitable, and thus, are not real model to copy.

Mistake 10 - Overinvesting in WMMA

Woman MMA, represents barely not even 10% of the market, but 5 to 3 % of it. There are one thousand time more male than female fighters, and the talent pool not deep, and there are not even 5 weight classes.

Superstars like Rousey, Stamp, and Dakota used to sell, but outside of that there is nothing interesting to make out of WMMA, it's a hyena share, in the best case scenario.

Wasting millions on WMMA is not a wise endeavor. The only thing that could really support WMMA worldwide, is the making of MMA an olympic sport, which would create women national teams in almost all countries. That is not the case the right one.

It is not about liking or disliking women MMA, or women, it is about money and profit, in order for the corporation to survive and then to thrive.

Bellator invested millions on WMMA, so did One. Was it really worth it. The MMA audience is 95% males, even if there are more women than males on earth.

For any organization emerging, it would be better to only focus on men MMA, and securing one world, rather than being naive and try to have two feet in two worlds.

 

[HuskySamoan]

I think too many promotions think short term, if anyone ever wants to be a viable global promotion they need to accept being in the red for 5-10 years. They need to aggressively scout prospects, perhaps farm/groom the IMMAF standouts, maybe even purchase the IMMAFs. Aggressively go after free agents with a heavy wallet, when KSW outbid the UFC to keep Parnasse, if X promotion won that bidding war not only would they have one of the best FWs in the world but they'd show they can be a more lucrative option for some top talent than even the UFC. Itd be awesome if we had a promotion that was elite that wanted to sign guys like Vartanyan.

Realistically its really hard, he UFC has US, Brazilian and UK talent by a stranglehold. And where the talent is available, it doesnt seem the correlating countries actually generate much revenue like Russia, Poland, France, Central Asia...on a global level. But it takes time to invest in talent generationally, to establish yourself as a lucrative and safe option for talent that has many options. To get a streaming deal and network yourself with feeder promotions etc. It can be done but you need a lot of capital, a real vision and you gotta be willing to be in the red for 5-10 years.

 

[skylolow]

Very well written and a lot good points that due hinder these orgs.

Truth might just be the market share war has been won and to ever break that is just about impossible usually because any growth in the market a large percentage of any dollar gained goes to the UFC . In sports and even sports entertainment time and time again one form/league/org basically reigns supreme by a long shot through out the world. Everyone else fights for scraps. You can do everything your talking about above and get very little traction. Even the orgs that are doing ok don't even play in the same universe as the UFC. The UFC makes more revenue in a couple weeks than they do in one year especially with this new media deal. The gap has widen even further.

As fans I think we simply expect too much from these orgs. We all want them to be a competitor on some level but it is literally like comparing a rummage sale to Walmart. Just isn't gong to happen. The UFC puts out enough media through out the year to satisfy a majority of fans needs. It has been proven that most UFC fans aren't seeking out any other MMA media 99% of the time.

 

[Ara tech]

Very well written and a lot good points that due hinder these orgs.

As fans I think we simply expect too much from these orgs. We all want them to be a competitor on some level but it is literally like comparing a rummage sale to Walmart. Just isn't gong to happen. The UFC puts out enough media through out the year to satisfy a majority of fans needs. It has been proven that most UFC fans aren't seeking out any other MMA media 99% of the time.

You are right sadly, about the UFC being overpowered.

To compete with the UFC, it would need a cunning leadership and a long term vision, which many are obviously lacking, such as the PFL CEO.

We are not against the UFC, we are against monopoly, as monopoly often would lead to abuse. Imagine if there was only one single organization on earth which would rule MMA, besides, alternatives always make the world a better place with opportunities, if you are mistreated or rejected somewhere, you still can move to somewhere else, competitors also increase salaries.

For someone starting an MMA corporation, an MMA promotion, being a KSW, an Oktagon like model is the safer and the most reasonable road to take. Being friends with Oligarchs and Maradjas and Cheiks is also a plus, with of course the money laundering schemes.

 

[skylolow]

You are right sadly, about the UFC being overpowered.

To compete with the UFC, it would need a cunning leadership and a long term vision, which many are obviously lacking, such as the PFL CEO.

We are not against the UFC, we are against monopoly, as monopoly often would lead to abuse. Imagine if there was only one single organization on earth which would rule MMA, besides, alternatives always make the world a better place with opportunities, if you are mistreated or rejected somewhere, you still can move to somewhere else, competitors also increase salaries.

For someone starting an MMA corporation, an MMA promotion, being a KSW, an Oktagon like model is the safer and the most reasonable road to take. Being friends with Oligarchs and Maradjas and Cheiks is also a plus, with of course the money laundering schemes.

I think most fans distain towards the UFC is strictly a Dana and in general how many of the fighters are treated issue. Like every sport, as you grow and the money grows eventually the athletes will want more of that pie and better treatment. I honestly don't believe for one second that this topic of a fighter union/association hasn't been heavily discussed over the years behind closed doors by the UFC brass. It is the evolution of what all major sports go through and eventually it will be the UFC's time. I won't doubt it if they have a rough outline of concessions they'd be willing to give up to try to hold off the fighters coming together if it appears they are heading down that road. I also think the UFC knows that if this ever happens the flipside of this is it should clean up a lot of negative shit that surrounds the UFC that only seems to be growing over the years. Which by removing that may help them grow even larger to help make back some money lost in a collective bargaining agreement.

 

[Mob69]

I think most fans distain towards the UFC is strictly a Dana and in general how many of the fighters are treated issue. Like every sport, as you grow and the money grows eventually the athletes will want more of that pie and better treatment. I honestly don't believe for one second that this topic of a fighter union/association hasn't been heavily discussed over the years behind closed doors by the UFC brass. It is the evolution of what all major sports go through and eventually it will be the UFC's time. I won't doubt it if they have a rough outline of concessions they'd be willing to give up to try to hold off the fighters coming together if it appears they are heading down that road. I also think the UFC knows that if this ever happens the flipside of this is it should clean up a lot of negative shit that surrounds the UFC that only seems to be growing over the years. Which by removing that may help them grow even larger to help make back some money lost in a collective bargaining agreement.

People complain about how the UFC treats fighters. Well PFL and ONE often make it difficult to fight at all.

 

[Mack812]

Every inspiring MMA promoter and investor needs to read the above guide. Not every promotion needs to be in the big leagues like the UFC. All MMA fans ask for is to offer some variety and a good product without the promotion overspending their money in the wrong places.