During my time here at Last Word on Sports, I’ve written a lot about drawing power in MMA. From stars to PPV numbers to popularity trends, MMA is a sport where these types of numbers are especially intriguing.
When discussing these aspects, it seems that all we keep talking about is the lack of success this sport has seen recently. If we are not talking about that, we are worrying about the potential certain fighters have to replace the stars that have left over the past few years. However, after seeing the success of the last two UFC PPVs, I find myself feeling strangely optimistic about the future of this sport.
Highs and Lows
As I have said many times before, it is not difficult to narrow down the UFC’s peak years in popularity. Since this sport is so young, I like to call the short period between 2008 and 2012 ‘The Golden Years’. What made this tiny era so special was a perfect blend of stars fighting in their peaks at the same time as the sport catching on as a trend.
Faces like Georges St. Pierre, Rashad Evans, and former wrestler Brock Lesnar took the UFC to heights that seemed impossible years prior, coming close to or breaking a million PPV buys on multiple occasions. In fact, coming into 2015, only seven PPV’s had ever broken a million buys.
This period accounted for five of those, all of which included either Lesnar or Evans in the main event (although GSP has never actually been involved in the main event of a card that broke a million buys, he’s consistently drawn over 600,000 buys and being in the co-main event of UFC 100 was a major reason that it set the PPV record in MMA). It seemed like the UFC was about to assert MMA as a legitimate sport (a touchy subject with fight fans) and go on to make as much money and gain as much popularity and intrigue as other major sporting organizations such as the NFL and MLB. However, everything was about to come to a crashing halt.
People seemed to have seen enough from this sport and only the ‘hardcore fans’ were left to enjoy it. Only events containing stars like St. Pierre and Anderson Silva continued to draw consistent numbers, but even then, those stars began fighting less and less. That was the real nail in the coffin.
After taking time off due to an ACL tear that limited him to three fights between 2011 and 2014, St. Pierre decided to kind of sort of maybe retire. Silva fought twice a year from 2010-2013, before gruesomely injuring his leg in a rematch with middleweight champion Chris Weidman (the only post ‘Golden Years’ fight to break a million buys). When he returned a little over a year later victorious, he tested positive for banned substances and his future remains unclear.
Lesnar, the UFC’s biggest draw of all time, up and left the sport to return to wrestling in 2011, after losing his first bout in a year due to a second battle with diverticulitis. After working his way back up to a title shot in 2012, Evans went on a two fight losing streak, only bouncing back with back to back wins over 35 plus aged middleweights. He hasn’t fought in two years due to multiple injuries.
They say that when one star dies, another is born, but it just never happened that way for the UFC between 2012-2014. Jon Jones might be the greatest fighter of all time, but he still hasn’t caught on as the draw that his skills command him to be. No one has the defended the heavyweight title more than once (if they could fight more than once in a year) to establish a decent run and catch on with the casual fans.
Demetrius Johnson, though dominant and thrilling to watch, is possibly the worst drawing champion of all time. The only other champion with a long enough reign to become a draw is Jose Aldo, who like Jones, he has seemingly failed to catch on.
Non-champion draws such as Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen have either passed their primes, retired, or, like a Diaz brother, gotten into too much trouble to stick around for long. It seemed like all was lost, until the summer of 2015 happened, and hope was reintroduced to MMA fans hoping for a new set of ‘Golden Years’.
Rousey, McGregor, and a New Hope
Dana White has been telling us for three years now that Ronda Rousey is the biggest star in MMA. For once, his large statement on a subject that benefits his company is actually accurate. She might not have been right away, but Rousey has truly transcended the MMA sphere and brought some fresh eyeballs to the UFC’s product.
The same can be said about Conor McGregor. The UFC told us that this Irish featherweight was a star in the making, that he would have an entire country behind him for every fight. And although it just seemed like a promoter promoting (as they often do), they were right. Because after talking about how big of stars these two athletes were going to be, they both actually proved their drawing ability within the last few weeks.
Despite Jose Aldo dropping out of his planned bout with McGregor for the featherweight title at UFC 189, McGregor proved that he was the fighter that fans were coming to see. The event broke gate records and sold somewhere between 950,000 and just over a million buys. The long time, dominate champion was removed from the fight just over a week before the event was to take place and replaced with a fighter only known to hardcore fans, and the event was still one of the most successful events since the ‘Golden Years’.
To top it off, Ronda Rousey headlined one of the few weak cards of the summer just last Saturday. Despite a lack of meaningful fights, and Rousey’s opponent giving no one the impression that the fight would last over a minute, the event was still extremely successful.
No official numbers have come out yet, but it has been reported that UFC 190 didn’t just break a million buys, it shattered it, possibly breaking UFC 100’s record. Keep in mind that the only reason people were buying this card was to see Rousey fight. It’s only the second time in the UFC’s history that they have put on back to back PPV’s that (possibly) have broken a million buys.
Couple that with the potential for Jon Jones to become the draw he deserves to be upon his return, Chris Weidman having all the makings of a future star, the bantamweight division having an exciting eventual clash between the current champion and the twice removed champion who never actually lost his belt, and Robbie Lawler having one of the most exciting styles in MMA, and we might be looking at the beginning of a new set of ‘Golden Years’ in MMA.
