Outside Source
During a TKO-run financial call on Wednesday, TKO Group Holdings President Mark Shapiro shrugged off any concerns that fans and media have raised lately about the quality of its events. All across social media, fans have lambasted the UFC’s matchmaking and card creation decisions this year since the Paramount deal came into play. The claims of fewer ranked combatants on the billing, a smaller number of championship pairings and more fights with athletes on long losing streaks have plagued the promotion as of late.
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Prior to UFC 328 on Saturday, the promotion has only run three championship bouts this year: Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett, Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes 2 and Carlos Ulberg vs. Jiri Prochazka. Four more are on the books through June, with two of those at UFC 328 and the other two at the UFC White House event.
As a recent example of growing concerns from the fanbase, just 10 of the 24 athletes at UFC Winnipeg in April posted winning records with the promotion, with its headliner a match between a rising Canadian star and a 39-year-old former title challenger on a four-fight losing streak. Per Shapiro, the UFC is ignoring all such criticism, while declaring that things have never been better for the company.
Making money hand over foot
Based on the financial statements, the UFC argues that they not only remain at the top of the mixed martial arts mountain by a wide margin, but that the revenue keeps growing year-over-year. Shapiro and the other decisionmakers at the company believe everything is hunky-dory, although viewership numbers of recent events have not been revealed.
“Bottom line is, we don’t buy it,” stated Shapiro. “Let’s just start with this premise: the product is great at the UFC, the brand has never been stronger, our reach has never been greater. So, the foundational elements of UFC are in concrete. Anyone that came to our last numbered fight in Miami, which was UFC 327, was flat-out blown away. Anyone that went to our last Fight Night, which happened to be last weekend in Perth, Australia, a sellout, or even to have watched it, witnessed it, an extraordinary sport.”
Shapiro continued, “We are always building at the UFC. We’re in the building phase at all times. We find the best up-and-coming talent around the world, and we match them continually in the best fights. There’s a huge movement right now with all these young fighters coming up in the ranks, many of them are taking over slots in the top 10 from guys who have been names in the rankings for years. Strong personalities that are busting just now, [like] Joshua Van, Brazilian Carlos Prates, undefeated Michael Morales. The next generation. Or look at the White House card, which we put out there as a strong card, we’ve actually added a [fight] to it, the UFC ‘Freedom 250,’ which is stacked top-to-bottom, and we’re using that opportunity to feature one of our most promising stars in Ilia Topuria.”
Even though Shapiro deigned to admit that the UFC was in a rough patch competitively and in terms of apparent flagging fan interest, he did let slide that every industry goes through tough spots. In his comparison, he used basketball stars as a reference to the UFC not necessarily having household names like Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor in the headlines.
“With any sport, there’s just natural ebbs and flows. It’s all very cyclical. Again, harping back to the ESPN days, the NBA was on fire with Michael Jordan and he left, and there was a bit of a dip. And then, all of a sudden, it was [Shaquille O’Neal] and Kobe [Bryant], and as long as Shaq and Kobe were in the NBA finals, the NBA was in good shape. But the year they weren’t there, or they were playing the [New Jersey] Nets or the San Antonio Spurs were there, there was a fall off,” he referenced.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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