UFC Settles Into A New Groove
Posted by RB, 20 Oct 2006
MMA junkies always looking for their next fix may find themselves ambivalent towards the new direction of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. On the face of things, hardcore fans have never had it better—pay-per-views are almost monthly nowadays, and then there are Ultimate Fight Nights and the reality show plugging the gaps in between.
And yet, some might say the fix a UFC pay-per-view event provides used to be much more powerful. Fans may already feel nostalgic about the days of UFC events that were anticipated for months, and when they arrived they arrived stacked to the rafters, with at least five or six fights to get excited about.
Probably since Liddell vs Couture III at this year's Superbowl weekend event, cards have been moving towards a format with two 'showcase fights' per pay-per-view, and a roster of less established fighters making the card up. This trend is especially evident over the last few events: at UFC 64, six of the eight fights were dedicated to relative up-and-comers and new prospects. Compare this to the same time last year at UFC 55, where only two of the seven fights on the main card were reserved for non-veterans.
Yes, the UFC pay-per-view has been diluted, and yes, the bastards are charging more for these diluted events than they did for the stacked cards of yesteryear. But it was economically inevitable: the UFC have been building the sport for years with cheap pay-per-views featuring a whole bunch of talent—perhaps at the expense of fighter salaries—, and now that their brand name has achieved notable popularity, they are more than entitled, one might think, to reap the fruits and tighten the screws on their business model.
For now, the two-fight pay-per-view (replete with ads, plugs, and movie trailers) is proving to be the best way for the UFC to turn a profit. PPV numbers are soaring from event to event, and all is well in the land of Dana White & the Fertitta brothers. Since casual fans of the sport, such as those brought in from the reality show, do not have a broad knowledge of the sport and its fighters, paying for more than three or four world-class fighters on each card makes little sense, as they would be going unrecognised by a large portion of the fan base without first being marketed (which can only be afforded to so many fighters per event). Gone are the days of the hardcore fan driving the sport financially, and with it the days of the Ricco Rodriguez vs Pedro Rizzo prelim.
Woe of the hardcore fan aside, this is likely to lead to some great things in the sport. The increased revenues from the bigger PPV numbers along with fewer top-tier fighters on each card will drive the price of the headlining fighters through the roof. Not only will there be deeper pockets to pay the fighters with, but marketing a pay-per-view on just one or two fights dramatically increases the reliance on these few fights, making them worth investing serious coin in. Fighter salaries on the upper end of the UFC scale are set to skyrocket due to the two-fight card structure (in fact, they have already been doing so throughout 2006).
Which is great for the fighters—but what about the fans who want to world class fighter vs world class fighter on as regular a basis as humanly possible? Well, it's not terribly bad for them either. The increasing frequency of the pay-per-views goes some way to cancelling out their dilution. A quick look at the history books shows that, despite the aforementioned dilution, the UFC of today is matching the UFC of yesterday when it comes to the number of high quality fights in a given period.
In the last eight weeks, for example, the UFC has put on Matt Hughes vs BJ Penn, Rich Franklin vs Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell vs Babalu, Diego Sanchez vs Karo Parysian, Sean Sherk vs Kenny Florian, and Tito Ortiz vs Ken Shamrock: six fights almost exclusively featuring world class competitors from the top shelf (and otherwise, big names).
Compare this with the same eight-week period from last year, where the six highest-profile fights were as follows: Chuck Liddell vs Jeremy Horn, Randy Couture vs Mike Van Arsdale, Frank Trigg vs George St Pierre, David Loiseau vs Evan Tanner, Andrei Arlovski vs Paul Buentello, and Diego Sanchez vs Nick Diaz.
While the recent period from 2006 doesn't completely blow last year's fights out the water – Liddell, Horn, Couture, St Pierre, Arlovski, Tanner and Loiseau are nothing to turn your nose up to – it is fair to say that 2006 is easily holding its own, and probably comes out slightly on top.
At least, then, if the hardcore fan is paying substantially more to keep up with all the UFC pay-per-views this year, there is reassurance in the fact that the number of high quality fights has not dropped at the same time, despite no individual card of late being stacked.
Yes, I am beginning to get comfortable with the UFC's new groove – if the pay-per-views continue to increase in frequency, and main events continue to increase in quality, that's something I can more than live with… Oh – did I mention that I'm watching from the UK, where each UFC PPV is screened on free TV the next day?
So, sure – if a British pay-per-view company picks up the UFC any time soon, I may re-evaluate my opinion with a sudden focus on the price of each event. But for now, the UFC PPV schedule sits okay with me.
