UFC Has Set Itself To Fail In 2017

The UFC had the two-year run of their dreams, setting the company record for most pay-per-view (PPV) sales in 2015, with an average of 550,000 buys for 13 cards, and eclipsing that figure in 2016 with an average of 644,000 for the same number of PPV events. The consecutive banner years eventually led to the company’s sale for an incredible $4.2 billion—a development that leads to another question: Has the UFC set itself to fail in 2017?

One important thing to consider when looking at the UFC’s impressive two-year run is that it saw the astronomic rise to stardom of Irish supernova and current lightweight champion Conor McGregor. From 2015 to 2016, McGregor headlined five PPV events, with all but one eclipsing the 1 million buy mark. While that’s certainly great for the UFC, it also shows how dependent they are on the Irishman’s unprecedented star power.

As noted by a CBSSports report, in 2016, the five PPVs that was headlined by McGregor, along with UFC 207 that featured the return of crossover star Ronda Rousey, and the monumental UFC 200 all did over 1 million buys, while five other PPVs did less than 250,000. The report also points out that UFC 197, 199 and 203 did 322,000, 320,000 and 450,000 buys, respectively.

McGregor is expected to be out of the Octagon at least until May and Rousey may have fought for the last time in the UFC after getting pummeled in 47 seconds by women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. That leaves the UFC with no star of that magnitude to bank on for the first half of 2017. Recently crowned bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt could potentially be a star, but he’s not quite there yet. Hardcore fans may be intrigued by former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ return, but despite perhaps being the most skilled fighter in the UFC, he’s never been a proven draw at par with McGregor and Rousey. As noted by MMA Fighting, the highly-anticipated return of Jones at UFC 197 did only 322,000 buys. It will be interesting to see what moves the UFC makes to not have as steep of a decline in 2017.

Tagsufc, conor mcgregor, ronda rousey, jon jones