Last year, TKO Group Holdings(1) signed a record-breaking $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, giving exclusive rights to stream all UFC(2) events on Paramount+. Since the transition, we’ve had 3 numbered events(3) and 3 UFC Fight Nights(4), garnering record viewership for the new platform. Revenues are higher than they’ve ever been, with the UFC posting over $1.5 billion in revenue in 2025 at a staggering 57% profit margin. But there’s a ticking time bomb under the facade of high earnings, one that is multifaceted and must be addressed if the organization and sport want to survive. The fans are left more and more disappointed, the events are underwhelming as ever, and even the fights themselves are no longer as entertaining as in the UFC’s golden age. 

Part 1: The UFC is a Monopoly

Since the acquisition in 2001 by the Fertitta Brothers and Dana White, the UFC has transformed from a niche sport that was once banned in 36 states to a global combat sports monopoly. Indeed, the UFC has operated under the classic monopolistic strategy: setting barriers to entry and buying out all competition. After buying out its biggest competitor, Pride FC, the UFC has been dominating the market through ruthless horizontal integration and coercive contracts. This has led to multiple Class Action antitrust lawsuits being filed against the UFC, with the owners being forced to settle with a group of fighters for $375 million. Because of monopoly power, prices for fans have skyrocketed, competition is non-existent, and fighter pay is predatory.

I’d make more money as a McDonald’s manager than as the average UFC fighter. While the average NFL and NBA player makes around $4 million and $10 million per year respectively, UFC fighters don’t even come close. In fact, 43% of UFC fighters made under $45,000 in 2024, a miniscule sum when considering that fighters have to pay for their own coaching, nutrition, and management. Why does this happen? The UFC’s monopoly power allows them to pay below-market wages, and its status as the largest MMA(5) organization, being synonymous with MMA to most casual viewers, ensures that fighters simply have nowhere else to go. The next best option is to compete on smaller, regional promotions, which make even less money. This is why fighters are forced to sign coercive, exclusive contracts with the UFC, often losing(6) half of their paycheck if they lose. For young, passionate fighters, this means that the only way to sustain a living while pursuing a professional MMA career is to ascend to the level of a Champion in the UFC. This is a depressing reality, since the vast majority of UFC fighters don’t ever come close, succumbing to injury or being cut from the UFC after losing fights, or simply being boring. 

A long term issue that arises from low fighter pay is that the talent pool for MMA shrinks massively. Why would a talented, athletic person ever choose MMA as a sport when the best of the best in the UFC get paid the same as NBA rookies? The monopolistic profit-seeking by the UFC has led to a smaller talent pool, poorer fighters, and higher prices for fans, while delivering a product that gets worse and worse every year. 

Part 2: The Matchmaking is Idiotic and the Cards are Trash

Historically, one of the biggest appeals of the UFC was its matchmaking. The best versus the best. This was its biggest advantage over boxing, where matchups usually heavily favor the more popular fighter, and big upsets are much more rare. However, it seems that the UFC is moving away from a meritocracy and focusing more on protecting its stars and enforcing a system of loyalty rather than finding out who the best fighter truly is. There are countless examples, but let’s analyze the most egregious high-profile mismatches in the past few years.

• Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili 2

In this Bantamweight Title Fight, Sean O’Malley got a completely undeserved immediate rematch with the Champion, Merab Dvalishvili, who decisively beat him in their previous fight. As expected, Merab submitted O’Malley in the third round, making for a boring, dominant fight. This is an example of what many call “Dana White privilege,” where certain fighters are heavily favored over others on reasons of popularity and loyalty to the company, not merit.

• Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic

After Jon Jones, the greatest UFC fighter of all time and the heavyweight champion, came back from injury in late 2024, the UFC opted to matchmaking him against former champion Stipe Miocic. At the time, Miocic had lost his last fight and was retired for three years, coming back just to fight Jon Jones. Of course, Jones made it look easy and finished Miocic by TKO in the third round with a beautiful spinning back kick to the body, crumbling the former champion and retiring him for good. Although the finish was spectacular, the matchmaking was not. At the time, reigning interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall was dominating the division, with all of his fights ending by a finish in the first round. He was undoubtedly the most deserving opponent to fight for the title, but the UFC chose to protect their golden boy and spare him from Aspinall, leading to a year-long stall, in which Jones continuously refused to fight Aspinall, before abruptly retiring from the sport.

• Arman Tsarukyan

Arman Tsarukyan is a dominating threat in the lightweight division. Riding a 5-fight win streak, the impressive Armenian fighter boasts superior grappling skill and dominant performances over top-15 opponents. Despite this, the UFC and its CEO, Dana White, have an animosity and bias against Arman, continuously denying him title opportunities and citing issues with his behavior as reasons to pass him over for a title shot. Dana White claimed that Arman’s fight against Dan Hooker would lead to the winner getting a title shot; however, after Arman won by submission in the 2nd round, he was not given a title opportunity.

• Gaethje vs. Pimblett

While turning out to be an extremely entertaining fight that kicked off the Paramount+ era, UFC 324: Gaethje vs. Pimblett was outrageous as a numbered main event. In this fight, Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje faced Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett in a bout for the interim lightweight championship. The only reason this was considered a title fight was because the reigning champion, Ilia Topuria, was going through a messy divorce and was unavailable to defend his title. Gaethje and Pimblett, however, were both completely undeserving of the title opportunity, with Arman Tsarukyan, Charles Oliveira, and Max Holloway all being superior fighters and having much better recent wins. 

Part 4: Boring Fighters and the “Lay and Pray” Meta

The UFC is infested by boring grappling and low-output fights, ones that leave fans snoozing in their chair, and tank the UFC’s reputation as an entertaining combat sport. Wrestling and grappling are integral parts of MMA, with some of the UFC’s greatest champions such as Jon Jones, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and George St-Pierre being specialists in wrestling and grappling. In the past year, however, we have seen an unprecedented amount of boring and uneventful fights.

The fight that started this all off was the middleweight title bout between Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus Du Plessis in August 2025. This long-anticipated match up was, on paper, destined to be an exciting fight: Chimaev was a rising star and Du Plessis was dominating the division with his unorthodox, physical style. However, it turned out to be the worst title fight in UFC history, with Khamzat Chimaev taking Du Plessis down 12 times, and holding him on the ground for a total of 21:40 in a 25 minute fight. Dricus lost his belt, fans were disappointed, and a new, abusive strategy for wrestlers was showcased on the world stage.

Since then, multiple fights followed a similar pattern. Notable, Islam Makhachev, the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC and a major global star, moved up a weight class to face the welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena. This monumental matchup, where two champions collided in the UFC 322 main event, had a similar fate to Khamzat vs. Du Plessis, with Makhachev holding Maddalena down for over 19 minutes, stalling in every round. 

(1) TKO Group Holdings, Inc. is an American sports and entertainment company. They own the UFC and the WWE, and are a major player in the combat sports industry.

(2) The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the biggest mixed martial arts(MMA) organization in the world.

(3) Numbered events: e.g., “UFC 300” and “UFC 326” are major UFC events. Prior to the Paramount+ acquisition, these events were sold separately under a pay-per-view model. These events historically include high-profile fights and Championship bouts.

(4) Minor events. Usually do not include championship bouts.

(5) Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport that encompasses all aspects of martial arts. It is often mistaken as “UFC”, since the UFC is by far the largest MMA promotion, but they are different.

(6) The base UFC contract is $12,000 to fight and $12,000 to win.