The UFC’s Old Era v New Era: Is The Sport Failing?

The UFC’s Old Era v New Era: Is The Sport Failing?

By Dan McConnell

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest MMA promotion in the world and features many top-ranked fighters of the sport and has held over 400 events from it’s inception in November 12th 1993. Since the UFC’s inception, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta have been at the forefront of the company and have made the sport what it is today. Without the Fertitta brothers, the UFC wouldn’t exist, at least not on the scale it is today.

After the long battle to secure sanctioning for the sport and on the brink of bankruptcy, Station Casinos in Las Vegas executives Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and their business partner Dana White approached the UFC in 2000 with an offer to purchase the company.

A month later in January 2001 the Fertitta’s bought the UFC company for $2 million and created Zuffa LLC as the parent entity controlling the UFC. It’s well documented that the Fertitta’s struggled in the early days with getting the sport broadcast on television and getting past the sanctioning of the sport, they overcame financial risks, sacrifice in the face of gigantic opposition but they slowly but steadily rose in popularity after the purchase due partly to the 1st Ultimate Fighter but also greater advertising, corporate sponsorship, the return to cable pay-per-view and subsequent home video and DVD releases of events. Crossover stars like Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey and of course Conor McGregor helped in bringing the sport to a new audience.

In 2015 a major shift started to occur. Everything changed when the Fertitta’s cashed in during 2016 after almost running the UFC for 15 years, the business they created from the ground which I don’t disagree with as they rightfully deserve the rewards and more challenging time where ahead. WME-IMG, a sports management company bought the company for $2.4 billion dollars. Here are my thoughts from that huge shift below:

1-USADA and dealing with personal situations

In 2015 the United States Anti-Doping Agency came into play to protect clean athletes and the integrity of the sport. However great this idea was, it has seriously affected fighters who helped create the sport and slightly tarnished the UFC’s image. USADA have done an excellent job in cleaning out dirty athletes within the sport who have taken Performance Enhancing Drugs to make them perform better in their fights. Many of the former PRIDE fighters like Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, Fabricio Werdum, Vitor Belfort and Hector Lombard have been question marked. Not all have been found guilty but a drop in form has been the biggest factor and these fighters once seen as legends have been exposed, this adds the question mark over the former face of the company Anderson Silva. Is he really the greatest of all time?

There has been a huge issue surrounding some fighters who take a substance that they need medically or has been contaminated with a substance that is on USADA’s banned substance list. There hasn’t been one certain rule set by USADA but it hasn’t been fully complied, for example in the case of Jon Jones where he has been popped twice for misuse of drugs which should warrant a life-time ban. Since Conor McGregor’s fight with Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205, he has found himself in a whole heap of bother from jumping a Bellator cage and slapping an official, to gate-crashing the weigh-in at UFC 225 and causing seriously inflicting damage to property and fighters. Both are seen as huge draws for the sport and have almost been given a ‘get out of jail free’ card allowing them to almost do what they want and get a slap on the wrist.

2-The Reebok Deal

A lot of change happened in 2015 with USADA and a new fighting kit deal was next in the firing line. The UFC and Reebok struck a multi-million dollar deal where they would provide clothing supplies for fighters. This was an excellent idea but it came with so many draw backs. The Reebok deal would mean that fighters wouldn’t be allowed to wear any of their own sponsorship gear while they are involved at UFC press conferences, weigh-in and come fight night. This also meant that so many fighters lost the ability to add sponsors to their fight gear when making their ring walk, reducing the amount of income a fighter can make per fight. Let’s be honest, if your anyone else but McGregor the maximum you will earn for a fight is $50,000 which is very few fighters in itself. This really isn’t an awful lot of money when you roll into these living costs, fight camps and sacrifice for months of hard work.

Reebok have only started to add personalisation with their fight kits, adding names, champion and nationality logos, different colour schemes so fighters all don’t look like carbon copies of themselves. Before the Reebok deal, Tapout was the most famous fighting gear clothing brand which was created by pioneer Charles ‘Mask’ Lewis who wanted fighters to have almost a gimmick and be different. Lewis died in 2009 leaving his legacy in his wake, he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame and his name placed on the octagon door following his sad death. The WME-IMG owners where quick to take his name off the structure, further highlighting their lack of history, appreciation for the sport and sensitivity before their time.

Fighters have looked to other organisation such as Bellator who still allow them to wear and promote their sponsors, this has proved to be a successful venture for UFC veterans who want to make a last few pay days before they retire. It has also opened the door for prospects like Gegard Mousasi and Rory MacDonald to jump from the UFC’s ship and help promote Bellator’s power within the mixed martial arts world, with an increasing popularity and getting closer to compete with the UFC and their PPV numbers.

3-More Money Fights

The Fertitta era of running the UFC was a well oiled machine. Fighters who worked their way up the rankings earned their title shot, which was a huge sense of achievement for many who put hours into the gym and into their diets. In the early days we got to see matchups such as GSP v Matt Hughes, Frankie Edgar v Gray Maynard and Anderson Silva v Chael Sonnen and most recently McGregor v Aldo, MacDonald v Lawler as well as Jon Jones v Daniel Cormier which are known to be fan favourites for UFC fans because each individual worked their way up the ranks and justified their title shot.

This all changed within the new era of WME-IMG came in. There was a likeness for big draws, big money fights from the new owners which went away from the traditional model of fight matchmaking. The first big bill we got in the new era was the return of Brock Lesnar who faced Mark Hunt at UFC 200. We have also had Bisping v GSP, McGregor v Diaz and now Cormier v Miocic where fighters go out of their natural weight classes to step up for a big money fight that will bring in the masses.

However this will hold up the division. The fact we have seen the face of MMA in Conor McGregor fight the face of boxing Floyd Mayweather in a huge superfight, this was something that would have been unheard of until recently with many fans tuning in because of a freak show aspect. The UFC’s promotion of their own sport almost stopped as they put all their eggs in the one basket for ‘May Mac’. It was a win situation for the UFC and new owners as it was predicted McGregor pulled in a staggering $50 million for this fight alone, you would be lucky to have a UFC PPV that reached $3 million on a good night! Money fights are fun but they are not the be all and end all of MMA, they seem to hold up divisions which isn’t fun for the other contenders and money fights are only going to help the UFC in a short period of time. In the long run, if they do not follow rankings the whole organisation will fall apart.

4-Matchmaking Policy

There have been a lot of changes within the higher up tier of the UFC. There have been dedicated workers let go, some have retired and new ones brought in. This lack of continuity has shown within the UFC’s scattered match-making and booking of fights. Just because you’re the #4 ranked fighter dosen’t mean you’ll fight the #3 ranked fighter anymore, it seems like you need to sell yourself or do something different to grab the attention of the UFC and to entertain the casual fan.

Fighters like Conor McGregor, Kevin Lee and Colby Covington have reaped the rewards of the new era’s willingness to promote fighters who offer something different and almost jump the ranked fighters above them because of this. There has been a huge issue with who is the top contender in divisions, the UFC have ‘fixed’ this issue by adding too many unmeaning Interim Title fights between two ranked fighters who both deserved a clear-cut shot at the title to stall time. The meaning of winning gold is lost it seems the UFC is willing to hand out Interm Titles like their free tickets these days.

Poor decisions have been made in matchmaking of new divisions like the Women’s Flyweight and Featherweight divisions. They have not properly invested in building up either division, TUF 26 reality series was based around the Women’s Flyweight’s but very little of this talent or from the Invicta roster has been signed. Also especially the Women’s Featherweight’s when they booked Holly Holm who was on a 3 fight losing streak against former Invicta Featherweight Champion Cris Cyborg. Cyborg was waiting on this division being created but now there is a lack of top opponents for her to face and has placed her in a limbo situation.

There has been calling for a men’s 165 pound division which would make sense considering after 155 there is a huge jump to 170 pounds, fighters like Donald Cerrone have tried and mostly failed in both either because they have had a brutal weight cut or competing against fighters who are twice their size come fight night.

Also booking fights such as CM Punk v Micky Gall, a former WWE wrestler who has next to no MMA experience on the main-card of an event against a world-class BJJ specialist, highlights the WME-IMG era to bring in any draw that can maximize their bank balance despite their lack of history for the sport. This has really back fired and caused uproar, especially placing Punk on the main-card and leaving an MMA legend like Alister Overeem on the fight pass pre-lims.

5-The Fox to ESPN Deal

It was announced that the UFC have signed a $150 million deal per year with ESPN to broadcast their fights from January 2019. Fox was the television programme that gave the UFC their first big break, allowing building relationships’ with presenters, guests and staff to create a really solid product with scheduled programming which promoted the sport over a successful period of time. This new deal is something breath-taking for President Dana White himself to consider who has been with the company from the beginning but didn’t take into consideration people’s jobs and their lively hood. Regular Fox hosts like Karyn Bryant, Megan Olivi, Curt Menefee and guest former or current fighters like Michael Bisping, Kenny Florian, Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz jobs’ are not fully guaranteed. There is a huge shift in the UFC’s business model as the deal is tremendous for the UFC not just when it comes to money but also for being part of the ESPN family. The UFC is likely to be more heavily promoted on the network and in doing so will give the impression that it’s a more significant part of the sports scene. However UFC Fight Pass and PPV subscriptions may increase for fight fans to purchase because of this deal.

There is no doubt WME-IMG are seeing the UFC as only a business model to gain a better share within the market and maximise their monetary gains. Main issues have been seen within communication especially with their former two divisions World Champion Conor McGregor. The new owners didn’t even tie Conor down to a big contract before he took his well-earned break when he became a 2 division champion, they didn’t even contact him to discuss their plans which seems very disjointed from a sports management company.

They also freely let Rousey walk to WWE without putting up much of a fight, someone who carried the UFC for many years and helped promote the sport and in fact Rousey is managed by WME-IMG seems very iffy. Dana White has lost his two right hand men and even himself doesn’t seem to be bought on the new ownership with the talk of him opening a boxing promotion with Zuffa to get out of the MMA business. Many will continue to be sceptical of WME-IMG business and how they handle the company that is the UFC, especially the fighters on the roster who feel the full effects of it.