a few years ago i had ufc fight parties pretty regularly. now my friends never really call me to get together.

when dana/ufc brag about having the biggest year ever...its because of the broadcast/content deals (espn, bt sport, etc). thats where 85% of their revenue comes from. theyre not crushing ratings/ppv.

there was a bump in interest during the beginning of the pandemic. but that was because it was the only show going.

now theyve come back down to earth...except for events with their 1 true star (mcgregor).

the first usman/masvidal fight did over 1 mil with no sports counter programming during the pandemic. but the rematch card, with THREE title fights and the first american card with a full audience in attendance since the pandemic, did 200K LESS than the original usman/masvidal card (which pulled the main event together in only 6 days).

one of the summer ufc cards, which had the hottest young star in the org (adesanya), 2 title fights, and the return to the octagon of nick diaz, barely did 500K domestic ppv buys.

the ufc didnt even release (or leak) the last ngannou ppv rate. and that was his biggest and most hyped fight ever. safe to assume, the number was underwhelming.

and the last mcgregor fight, dana said the pre-buys were outpacing any card in ufc history and he was estimating a 2+ mil ppv buy rate. after the event, he had to humbly admit that the event was now looking at something closer to 1.6-1.7 mil. nothing to sneeze at (and any other fighter or boxer would kill for those numbers) but far below what they had been anticipating. which means a lot of fans sat out the event and didnt convert in the end.

as much as *i* like the ufc and watch just about every event in some way, a lot of people just dont care about shit like an usman/covington rivalry. and up and coming 'stars' like sean omalley, islam makhachev, and paddy pimblett arent exactly getting anyone outside the hardcore fanatics excited lol.