Cote: Like it or not UFC & Dana White's world domination tour just grew

Miami Herald

a day ago

UFC is taking on the world, and not just figuratively. UFC is taking on everything else you watch — yeah they're talking to you, NFL — and aiming to be the biggest sports-entertainment product there is. UFC already has the global presence football and other American sports are craving to have, and now the leader in mixed martial arts/combat fighting has an ability it hasn't had before to attract multitudes of new fans.
That's what this week's seven-year, $7.7 billion broadcast partnership between Paramount+ and UFC parent company TKO Group Holdings means. It wasn't so much a deal as a declaration.
Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO and president Dana White, a face of UFC since 2001, likes to say, 'I sell 'Holy s---!' moments for a living.'
That should have been the approximate reaction across sports (Holy s---!) when Paramount+ won the broadcast rights beginning in 2026 that ESPN+ owns through the end of this year by paying UFC double the $550 million per year the erstwhile 'WorldWide Leader in Sports' has been paying.
(As if aware it could not compete with Paramount+ to keep UFC, ESPN just earlier announced a five-year, $1.6 billion deal to win rights to WWE wrestling for its own planned new streaming service beginning in '26. A consolation prize of sorts.)
I must say at this point I'm not a fan in general of sports-business stories (or columns). It's like what is said about the sausage being made. I want to drive that sports car; don't care to see it being assembled.)
But I make an exception for this sports-business story because of what it will mean to UFC's growth.
UFC's main-card numbered events currently are locked behind a paywall: pay-ver-view. In the ESPN+ deal; the main events cost you $79.99 per show — a lot, especially if it's a so-so card as is frequently the case. But under the new deal the numbered events along with secondary Fight Night cards will be on Paramount+ and occasionally simulcast on CBS Sports with a premium plan at $12.99 a month.
White says flatly the relative new affordability will expose his sport to a huge number of newly interested fans among Paramount+'s 77.7 million subscribers, fans who were on the periphery or priced out before.
The irony, and another reason the amount of the new deal is a bit jaw-dropping, is that UFC is seen by many as being in a bit of a lull these days.
Says respected MMA writer Ariel Helwani: 'Every time I go on these radio shows or podcasts, and especially when I talk to 'mainstream' general sports shows, they always ask me about who's the next star. Who's the next A-lister? Who's the next draw? Who's the next Conor McGregor, the next Jon Jones, GSP [Georges St-Pierre] or Anderson Silva? We are approaching a territory now where it feels like there's a bit of a superstar shortage.'
Even former UFC star and current color commentator Danel Cormier buys into that perception.
'There was a time in the UFC where the champions were absolute stars. They were blockbusters, must-see attractions,' he said on the Good Guy/Bad Guy podcast. 'It was Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Conor McGregor. Every guy that held that belt seemed to warrant you coming and paying attention. Brock Lesnar. Cain Velasquez. Great fighters you had to watch. Today, it doesn't seem [that way] so much. Is there a void of that big star?'
(I might add Ronda Rousey to any good-old-days lament.)
Yet ditching the pay-per-view model starting in '26 will open up a whole new audience to UFC as its awaits its next wave of 'must-see attractions.'
The brand will further grow next July with gears turning on a UFC event at the White House as part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, a product of White's relationship with pal Donald Trump.
I am not a huge UFC fan personally. Sort of value MMA in terms of fitness, zen or self-defense more than as a combat sport. There have been four numbered UFC fights in Miami, all at the Heat arena: 47 in 2003, 287 in 2023, 299 in '24 and 315 just this past April. I have not attended any. Neither am I a big admirer of White.
But I do appreciate what the man has grown and shaped UFC into: a global force that has staged 743 events since its first in 1993, including 318 numbered events. The U.S. has hosted 524 of those total events, but UFC also is huge in Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Now TKO Group Holdings, which owns both UFC and WWE, is delving into creating a new boxing venture, with a bipartisan group in Congress already introducing a bill for a different framework for boxing separate from current sanctioning bodies. The streaming services will be watching.
No matter if you are a fan of UFC, you can't but credit the business model that just struck gold yet again.