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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Saturday night's UFC 177 pay-per-view event was kind of a microcosm of the UFC's current over-expansion issues. It was a card with little in the way of known commodities, and because most saw it for what it was - a very weak pay-per-view offering - there was some backlash from UFC President Dana White to those saying as much.
White lambasted a couple of reports that suggested fans not purchase UFC 177 on pay-per-view, while at the same time railing against some fans who suggested it wasn't worth watching as well. After trying to give a rousing speech to the fighters about the negativity surrounding the card, he went back to his mainstay of telling fans not to watch if they didn't think it was worth it.
That there wound up being some enjoyable fights on Saturday night is irrelevant to the argument, which is that the UFC didn't put on a pay-per-view worthy product on Saturday night. It's not meant as disrespect to the fighters themselves; they're going to do their job when the UFC books them to do their job. However, compared even to many of the free events on the schedule, UFC 177 was lacking in name value and division relevant fights, even before Renan Barao was forced out on Friday because of a bad weight cut.
Of the fighters on Saturday's main card, only Champ T.J. Dillashaw and women's bantamweight Bethe Correia were ranked in the UFC's official rankings coming into the event. Of the ten fighters on the main card, only Dillashaw and Yancy Medeiros had ever appeared on a pay-per-view main card before. Three of the ten fighters were making their official UFC debut.
Based on every pay-per-view the UFC has put on over the last eight years, Saturday's offering was amongst the worst, and it's an issue they have to address rather than brushing off complaints because there wound up being some enjoyable action.
Again, that's irrelevant to the concerns fans rightly had coming into the event. This is a symptom of the UFC forcing 13 pay-per-views onto the schedule rather than evolving their plans in that arena to go along with their global expansion.
Pay-per-view in MMA isn't dead. The UFC still has quite a few fighters worth paying extra to see outside of the countless free shows they continue to put on. What they haven't done is make the effort to differentiate their pay-per-view cards from a random Saturday night card on Fox Sports 1, which led to what they asked fans to pay for on Saturday.
As the injuries to several Champions have left the UFC without a large chunk of the top names in the organization, they've been putting out a sub-par pay-per-view product more often than not, and fans have noticed. Buyrates are down significantly from past years, because it becomes a lot easier for a fan to skip a $60 event when they don't see it as being that much better than three or four other events happening in the weeks surrounding the pay-per-views.
Now, it doesn't have to be this way, even with the schedule they have. They've stretched themselves thin because they're trying to serve too many masters, and they've lost some focus as far as building the best pay-per-view product they can put on. Heading into 2015, they can make an effort to change that, and it starts with scaling back the number of pay-per-view cards.
To be clear, this isn't about scaling back the amount of cards in general, because they can continue their global expansion plans and their desire to put on cards everywhere and anywhere they can. But they may be served a lot better by reducing their pay-per-view schedule from 12 or 13 events a year to eight, running every six to eight weeks while plugging in their free TV events in between.
The way to make these pay-per-view cards more important, stand out events is to make each of them about title fights and title eliminators, leaving less relevant fights to prelims, Fox Sports 1, and UFC Fight Pass. Additionally, Fox events would ideally be headlined by top contender fights as well, giving the next title challengers five rounds to set themselves up for a title bout.
With eight pay-per-views to focus on, they don't need to stretch the cards thin in order to keep a title fight on each event. Instead, each card could feature two to three title fights, with one to three meaningful undercard bouts joining those title fights on pay-per-view. Here's how that could play out in 2015:
UFC 182 (Jan. 3): Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier headlines, Ronda Rousey vs. TBD in the co-main event, T.J. Dillashaw defends title against Dominick Cruz (assuming Cruz beats Takeya Mizugaki)
UFC 183 (Jan. 31): Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler II, Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz as dual headliners, Flyweight Title fight could also appear
UFC 184 (Late March or Early April): Cain Velasquez (or Fabricio Werdum) defends the Heavyweight Championship, Anthony Pettis (or Gilbert Melendez) defends Lightweight Title against Donald Cerrone-Eddie Alvarez winner (or another challenger to emerge this fall), Jose Aldo (or Chad Mendes) defends Featherweight Championship
UFC 185 (Memorial Day Weekend): Chris Weidman (or Vitor Belfort) defends the Middleweight Championship, Bantamweight Championship defended, Women's Strawweight Championship defended for the first time
UFC 186 (July 4 Weekend): Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson rematch (or Jones-Cormier rematch if Cormier wins at UFC 182), Ronda Rousey defends again, Welterweight Championship defended
UFC 187 (Labor Day Weekend or Mid-September): Middleweight Championship defended, Lightweight Championship defended, Flyweight Championship defended
Under this schedule, each UFC pay-per-view features at least two title fights, and most of them have three. Things can be shifted around in the case of injury, and then they're not scrambling to make things work for an extra five events in this time.
Additionally, each division's title would be on the line at least twice in a 13-month span, with most on the line thrice, barring injury.
Now, what this accomplishes is that each pay-per-view event becomes a true "must-see" event, as the only way to catch the top fighters in each division is on pay-per-view. Fox, FS1, and UFC Fight Pass cards all become stronger by featuring more relevant contender fights on their main cards, while the prelims become the home for the newcomers, the mid-card guys, and those prospects rising up the ranks. As they advance from free cards, they earn their chance to go after their division's title on the bigger stage, and if they're not established at that point, they don't have the burden of carrying a pay-per-view event on their own.
This is a way to differentiate the pay-per-view cards from everything else the UFC runs throughout the year. It gives fans a reason to plop down $60 eight times a year, rather than skipping all but two or three cards because those are the events that have the best fights.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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