A lot of fans these days have been complaining about bout order in the UFC cards. For example, on the card this weekend, UFC Norfolk fans are arguing that fights like Ismail Naurdiev vs. Sean Brady and Brendan Allen vs. Tom Breese deserve to be on the main card more then fights like Grant Dawson vs, Darrick Minner and Felicia Spencer vs. Zarah Fairn dos Santos. The only ones who truly know the science behind how the cards get put together are the UFC brass but we do have a few ideas on how they come up with their bout order.
Big Build Up
The UFC broke into the big time following the finale of the Ultimate Fighter. They described it as people were calling their buddies and telling them, “you need to turn on the tv and watch the UFC now.” With this thought in their heads, it’s not far fetched for the promotion to believe if they put on good fights to start the show, it will gain interest by the time the main card starts. The argument to that would be if they put most of their good fights first, they could stagnate and lose viewership by the time the main event rolls around.
Fighters Pay
Another reason the UFC could be more compelled to put bigger fights on the undercard would be to save their profit. Each fighter makes more money in most cases for main eventing, especially for a pay-per-view. The less money the UFC spends on a fighters pay for each card, the more they profit depending on the gate and total views. Putting a great fight at the start of a PPV would also convince more people to buy a PPV. The thought process there is that if a fan buys a PPV for the opener, they will stick around and watch the rest of the card.
Putting On A Show For The Live UFC Crowd
Fans that attend UFC events know the cards are extremely long. It’s not even comparable to other sporting events that are 2-3 hours long. A UFC event can range anywhere from six to eight hours long. The UFC doesn’t ever want to have times in their events where the crowd is lethargic. Therefore they strategically place good entertaining fights all throughout the card to assure that the crowd will be into the fights for the entire night.
The UFC will never be able to make everyone happy and it’s understandable if that’s not their main priority. The UFC is a business which means they are in it to make money. Having happy fans does make the company money but they have other focus that can sometimes hinder that. Its also understandable that as a die-hard MMA fan, you would want to see the best fights be on the main card. Hardcore fans have to realize though that there still are casual fans. The UFC has to target as big as an audience as they can to grow the business as big as they can.
