Main and co-main events scrapped or delayed in 2014: Jake Ellenberger vs. Tarec Saffiedine (Jan/4) Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira (Feb/1) Dominick Cruz vs. Renan Barao (Feb/1) Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira (Feb/22) Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano (Feb/22) Alex Gustafsson vs. Little Nog (Mar/8) Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira (Mar/15) Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort (May/24) Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida (May/24) Renan Barao vs. Rafael Assuncao (May/24) Junior dos Santos vs. Stipe Miocic (May/24) Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva (May/24) Junior dos Santos vs. Stipe Miocic (May/31) Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva (Jul/5) Chael Sonnen vs. Vitor Belfort (Jul/5) Conor McGregor vs. Cole Miller (Jul/19) Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes (Aug/2) Jacare Souza vs. Gegard Mousasi (Aug/2) Jon Jones vs. Alex Gustafsson (Aug/30) TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao (Aug/30) Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso (Aug/30) Jon Jones vs. Alex Gustafsson (Sep/27) Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier (Sep/27) Mauricio Rua vs. Jimi Manuwa (Nov/8) Rafael Cavalcante vs. Ovince St-Preux (Nov/8) Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum (Nov/15) Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez (Nov/15) Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort (Dec/6)
How bad is this? 2014 is down about 50% from 2013 in terms of PPV buys. Roughly the same number of events.
They have no marketable stars. The price of PPV is absurd. Nobody is going to pay $55 for An event when they can wait a few hours and see it online.
too many cards that are like boxing cards. Two big names in the main event and a bunch of 'who the hell is that?' fighting on the rest of the card. they need to trim the number fighters and cards and have everyone fighting 3-4 times a year so ppl know who they are. The fun part of MMA when I started watching it was you were familiar with 80% of the fighters on the card after watching the sport for 6 months and got excited about a new prospect here and there. Now you need sherdog's fight finder open to try and figure out who 1/2 the ppl are. The shocking part is when some of them are having their 3rd or 4th fight in the UFC but it's been 6-8 months since you last saw them and because there's been 12-15 fight cards you just forgot about them.
I don't disagree with you guys and this isn't a UFC apology thread but if half of those fights from above went off we'd be talking about what a memorable year in MMA this was and I'm guessing the UFC's PPV business wouldn't be flying like a wounded duck.
Speaking of the UFC's PPV model--their next 3 PPV cards will be $60 -- a $5 increase. Fuck that, not ordering. I'll avoid spoiler and download the torrent.