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By Cassandra Cousineau, LVSportsBiz.com UFC Writer
On a big sports weekend in Las Vegas, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) prepares to host UFC 300 at its home base of T-Mobile Arena on the Strip.
Headlined by a light heavyweight championship match between Jamahal Hill and Alex Pereira, the UFC fight show card is stacked with a Who’s Who of the MMA world, showing the Las Vegas-based MMA promoter has moved the sport from a niche status to a cornerstone of the global sports landscape.
UFC has used strategic branding, expanded global reach, and innovative broadcasting to create a fight show tonight that is symbolizes the sport’s dramatic rise a billion-dollar company.
A Sport Transformed
Just a few decades ago, UFC was viewed as a fringe sport, ostracized and ridiculed as unbridled cagefighting by the broader sports community.
In 2016, it wasn’t even legal in the state of New York.
Fast forward to today, and the UFC is not just a recognized as a sport but, as Mark Shapiro, TKO Holdings President, noted, “UFC is now not only mainstream, it’s one of the four majors.”
UFC Fight Night viewership “doubles NHL,” Shapiro said while appearing at the Morgan Stanley Tech, Media, and Telecom conference. “The ratings on ESPN and ESPN2, apples to apples against the NHL — even including the playoffs, we dwarf them.”
Fight Nights, mostly held at UFC’s Apex location, are free for ESPN+ subscribers, while bigger events like UFC 300 run fans a steep $79.99 just about every four to six weeks.
Embracing Digital
A critical element of UFC’s strategy has been its adept use of digital to tap into global markets.
Understanding the shift towards digital consumption, UFC introduced Fight Pass, a streaming service that features live events, a vast library of past fights, and regional content tailored to diverse international audiences. This service not only expanded UFC’s reach, but also allowed it to engage directly with its global fan base.
“Fight Pass was created to give fans all the fights they want, anytime, anywhere, which has been crucial for penetrating lesser-served markets,” UFC Boss Dana White noted, emphasizing the platform’s role in global strategy.
The bossman runs towards social media unlike most league executives. White told LVSportsBiz, “We’re working on big things right now for the next five years, and most of them revolve around social media.”
The move in 2019 to ESPN, a leader in sports broadcasting, reflects UFC’s established position as a significant player in the global sports industry, giving it access to ESPN’s vast and diverse sports fan base and further legitimizing MMA as a major sport.
Love it or Really Love to Hate it
In the marketplace, it’s a “love it” or really “love to hate it” thing when it comes to support of UFC as an MMA entity.
On one hand, the promotion’s roster of more than 600 athletes is the best collection in the world of global head smashers. They represent just about every corner of the world and every fighting style ever performed (legally) in mixed martial arts.
On the other, there are divisive and conspiratorial social media rants from fighters.
There’s also White, the blunt-talking and brash lightning-rod CEO who comingles his world views, often stirring controversy within and beyond the confines of UFC. You won’t have to look far to find dissenters who point out fighter pay discrepancies, and how White the bossman walked away from a domestic violence incident this past year.
It also has to be noted that UFC has provided opportunities to women in combat sports like no other promotion in the world.
Reborn During the Pandemic
Despite its success, the UFC has faced challenges. Big stars, including Nate Diaz and former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, have had well-documented falling outs and turned to boxing and rival promotions to generate money and notoriety.
Most notably, navigating regulations in various countries and managing the impact of global events like the COVID-19 pandemic was a make-or-break moment.
And early on, COVID looked more like it was going to break every sport.
Instead, the pandemic led to innovations such as hosting fight events at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, which was a complete game-changer as UFC was the first sports organization to put on major events during the early phases of the pandemic. The promotion went full steam ahead, and found a way for events to continue in a controlled environment, which kept the revenue streams flowing even during lockdowns.
“When you look at it, a lot of these leagues and businesses and whatever it might be were all trying to reopen in 2021. We never shut down. We were already rolling through 2020 and then right into 2021. Once we did the first show and we started to roll, I never looked back.” White told ESPN in 2021.
In 2023, UFC held 43 events in 19 different cities across seven countries and four continents. Those events drew an announced total attendance of 363,518, and, according to White’s public announcements, live gate totals north of $119 million.
UFC 300: A Milestone Event
Of the 26 athletes scheduled to appear at UFC 300, 12 are current or former champions, 18 ranked fighters, and seven pound-for-pound ranked athletes.
By the way, White announced during the event’s final press conference the usual fighter bonus will jump from $50k to a whopping $300,000.
UFC 300 marks a major milestone for the promotion that calls Las Vegas home.