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Without McGregor & Jones, are there any UFC stars left to carry PPVs?
Our open thread from earlier this week pondered who should be booked in the headlining spot of UFC 300, but as the comments began mounting, one thing became clear, there are very few UFC “stars” left and only two clear “superstars”: Conor McGregor and Jon Jones. Put aside your ramblings about how stacked cards kill the need for big main events because I don’t believe that’s true, otherwise we’d be seeing the Iron Man numbers McGregor always puts up and the middling-towards-upper-tier numbers Jones brings without the benefit of either being on said cards.
UFC’s moneymaking juggernaut
Thanks to John Nash’s tireless work, we know the UFC has found multiple ways to make big bucks outside their PPV enterprise. They just secured $100M in funding from Bud Light. As a matter of fact, UFC president Mark Shapiro stated in a recent UBS conference call that he wanted no less than $1B in sponsor money or he just couldn’t be happy.
Then we get to the site fees. The UFC now commands pretty sizable site fees, many of which are similar to the ones boxing commands. Places like Australia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are willing to pony up huge fees just to have them bring the show to town. They actually have economists draw up economic impact reports to illustrate the myriad ways UFC brought some measure of commerce to their location in an effort to inflate site fees.
There are so many ways the UFC makes money, from merchandise to live gates and everything in between, but none matter more than the almighty broadcast deal. Their main partner, ESPN, is where the real money is, and that deal is worth billions. Thanks to guaranteed money, we’ve seen Apex cards take over the bulk of their programming and PPV cards that don’t seem up to the standard of their prior glory days.
What ever happened to those incredible promo commercials? Promotional packaging these days is a far cry from what it once was. The buildup to GSP vs. BJ Penn or Matt Hughes or Nick Diaz was insane. The commercial for Conor’s fight with Jose Aldo remains untouchable. The way they promoted the Jones-Cormier bad blood was terrific. Remember when they used to name the cards? Yeah, those were the good old days. Now we get pre-packaged Embedded episodes and Dana White screaming into an influencer’s mic about Power Slap.
Who can carry the PPV weight?
So, aside from our two primes in Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, who is left? We cannot allow the UFC to force feed us the myth of Sean O’Malley being a superstar anymore. Both Aljamain Sterling and Ilia Topuria have made claims of seeing PPV sales of his fights and have said they leave a lot to be desired. For the sake of those arguments, we’ll set “Sugar” aside.
Nate Diaz, Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway are all a bit long in the tooth and only Nate can still command a sizable PPV audience based on the strength of name value alone. Poirier and Holloway are dependent on who’s booked opposite them or on a very supportive bout sheet underneath the headliner.
And we must remember, Diaz is no longer with the company. That’s not to say he won’t be back. He’s even said in interviews that he doesn’t rule out a return. A fight with Poirier would sell PPVs like hotcakes, but what about after? Not to mention that Dustin has already said it isn’t happening. Also, Diaz is just a hop, skip and jump away from 40. His longevity is on borrowed time and his prime is a distant memory. He has one, maybe two big PPVs left in him.
What about Jorge Masvidal? He’s announced his un-retirement and since he’s turned himself into a draw with big knockouts and his “three piece and a soda” antics with Leon Edwards some years back, could he possibly command a PPV? In my humble opinion, he is too old, too washed and could only draw well if properly packaged with a bigger name or with a heavily supported undercard. A rematch with Diaz might work, but honestly, I don’t think Masvidal is a viable answer.
There are two names that bear mentioning: Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira. Adesanya is a true PPV star but not at the level of McGregor. He’s still doing right around Jon Jones’ average and with the addition of a good supporting card, can do pretty close to or right at 1M buys. Pereira’s aura is amazing and he seems to be the talk and toast of the town, but he’s also getting long in the tooth and could be dependent on who he’s booked against and what the rest of the bout sheet looks like.
None of the rest of the UFC pack has truly set themselves apart from the herd as a bona fide PPV juggernaut. There are lots of great fighters and plenty of fun personalities, but who among them can carry the weight aside from the few mentioned above? I say none of them.
What do you think?
We’re pinning this post to our front-page all day to give our community a chance to have their say. So jump in the comments and tell us who you think has the ingredients for the ultimate PPV recipe. But if you want to discuss anything else, that’s cool, too. You’ve got an open forum here, so use it.