Following the surprise announcement that a settlement between the UFC and its class-action plaintiffs had been rejected by Nevada District Judge Richard Boulware, it appears that the future of MMA is once again an open question.
Judge Boulware did not grant preliminary approval for the UFC class-action antitrust settlement today. I was in the courtroom this afternoon. Boulware expressed several areas of concern and it sure seemed to me that he's leaning toward denying the deal and moving to a jury trial.
— Josh Gross (@yay_yee) July 12, 2024
A Legal Saga
The history of the UFC and its dance with the devil of monopsony is a long and complicated one. Accusations surrounding its anti-competitive tactics and bruising contractual strategy have been abound since the 2000s with the folding of Pride FC and spats with Andrei Arlovski and Randy Couture entrenching the UFC’s status as a company seemingly intolerant of competition.
In 2014, these accusations came to a head, with a group of former pros (headed by UFC veteran Cung Le) filing an antitrust suit under the Sherman Act against UFC parent company Zuffa. The suit alleged that the UFC had “driven out business”, schemed “to suppress compensation for UFC fighters…artificially” and had maintained its market position “through a series of anticompetitive, illicit and exclusionary acts”.
This was strong stuff representing an unprecedented challenge to the governance of the sport, as well as the future of its business practices, undoubtedly music to the ears of the competitor brands in the mid-2010s.
Cut to April of this year and the music seemed ready to die with the UFC coming to terms with its plaintiffs to the lowly tune of $335 million, while the upstart brands of the 2010s (Bellator, World Series of Fighting, Rizin) had since either folded or failed to break out of their regional bubbles.
This latest twist, with the July 31 announcement that the settlement had been rejected by the presiding judge once again opens up questions about the status of the UFC (monopsony or not) and their responsibility in nurturing and developing the sport that is essentially synonymous with their brand, business strategy, and outlook on fighting.
Stale Ideas
The UFC business model has remained essentially stagnant since the creation of the Contender Series, with the PPV- Fight Night model having a decade of tenure as of 2024. Despite this, profits continue to rise with a recorded $1.3 billion margin in 2023, not off the back of any expansion in the business model. Instead, the company once again chose to raise the pay-per-view price and cut wages in real terms with their preference for the minimum contracts awarded through the Contender Series.
Now is the perfect time for the innovative expansion that the UFC desperately needs, both to fend off allegations of exorbitant monopsony, and to enhance the experience of an ever-restless fandom.
The Knockout Stage
Tournaments are nothing new in the sport of MMA, being taken to spectacular heights during the heyday of Pride FC and serving as the key selling point for both Bellator and the PFL. They are, in effect, a founding pillar in the genesis of the business.
This truth extends to the UFC, with the paradigm-shifting Ultimate Fighter reality TV show making excellent use of the tournament format, generating new stakes and narratives for individual fights, creating a product greater than the sum of its parts. For whatever reason, this winning formula did not translate into the wider promotion with the executive branch favouring a subjective rankings system with individual fights serving as self-contained contests with little added stakes.
Introducing a tournament system would signal a fresh approach to the consumption of the MMA product. A hypothetical tournament could be entered voluntarily, with matchups determined by ranking position in addition to a title shot and large cash prize (say $2 million) being guaranteed to the winner. This tournament could run separately from the wider division, giving lower-ranked fighters a chance at an unprecedented and star-making run, ensuring extra paydays to those willing to risk their higher rankings.
A formula shakeup such as this would revivify the UFC viewing experience, generating greater fan interest and competitive stakes that exceed the makeup of the card, in addition to naturally generating star talent via the prestige given by success in the tournament.
It’s also worthy stating the self-evident truth: The UFC will take any chance to slap a title fight onto a PPV card, a need that the tournament format would also fulfill.
Streamlining
Given the discourse surrounding the market position of the UFC, and the responsibility of any corporation who have such a firm grip on the levers of power, it is about time that the UFC assume a more benevolent role in nurturing the next generation of talent.
MMA as a holistic practice is yet to see the expansion that correlates with the success of the UFC in the wider sporting ecosystem. As of 2024, the biggest star in the sport is kickboxing latecomer Alex Pereira, who in three years has enshrined his status as an all-time great, despite having no ground game to speak of. Equally, the regional scene is far from lucrative, with many fighters being forced into an extended hiatus due to bad pay and promotional mismanagement.
The solution is clear: Take the Contender Series and transform it into a wider feeder league by establishing gyms, fight cards, and fighter promotion on a regional basis.
Doing so would streamline the process of talent acquisition and take advantage of the local demand that is on full display whenever the UFC ventures outside America. This would provide the infrastructure that the sport desperately needs, as local talent will more often than not fail to receive the attention necessary to maximise potential. Other combat sports athletes will forgo MMA altogether, instead choosing to transition later in their careers.
Building gyms, promotions and talent agencies is, of course, a massive ask and would require substantial resources. However, any short-term loss is surely dwarfed by the opportunity cost of a true feeder league.
The UFC’s large international following, and the emergence of new national talent hubs (Dagestan, Georgia and the UK) should be indicative of the size of the financial and professional goldmine that the UFC is sitting on. By systematically developing and promoting talent regionally, the sport could experience an influx of national fans, similar to the eruption of lucrative enthusiasm coming out of the international Islamic community, which led to the increasing visits made by the UFC to the Middle East.
Furthermore, investment in local sporting talent can only enhance the overall quality of the product, narrowing the gap between the top and bottom of a fight card and giving potential regional fans a chance to experience the best of the sport in their own backyards.
Rule Changes
This final change now appears to be underway, and not a moment too soon, considering the recent controversial release of flyweight wrestler Muhammad Mokaev, in part (although not explicitly stated) due to his turgid wrestle-centric approach.
With the inception of the unified rules, one of the key tradeoffs made by the practitioners of the day was the use of knees and elbows to grounded opponents, which were perceived by trigger-happy federal regulators as simply too violent, for a sport famously described as “human cockfighting”.
But it’s worth repeating that this sport is now undeniably tenured, having achieved a comfortable mainstream position in the post-Endeavour world. This gives tentative executives the capital necessary to make those changes to the ruleset that will add new, exciting dimensions to each bout, to the benefit of the guiltiest lay and prey grapplers as well as the average fan.
The specifics should include knees to grounded opponents and up-kicks from any position during a ground exchange. The former will transform the skillset of those conservative grapplers that the UFC love to penalise, as they allow the fighter to deliver brutal strikes while retaining a dominant top position. The latter acts as an appropriate counter, transforming tentative guard play and more hesitant top control into the ultimate danger zone, with any bottom player having a full range of strikes available to them in their efforts to avoid remaining stuck on the defensive.
Final Thoughts
As the UFC approaches its Oct. 28 trial, questions are being asked of the promotion. They relate to the past achievements and future plans of a company that as of 2024, is the dominant force within the MMA market, a position which comes with a duty to the fighters, the fans, and the sport.
