MMA mirrored the rest of the world in 2017. It was a strange year, and it wasn’t always good.
Entering the negotiating period for a critical new broadcasting contract and with still-new UFC owners WME-IMG yet to make a major impact on that operation, TV ratings wobbled from respectable to lukewarm to record-breakingly abysmal. Speaking to a major lack of star power, no UFC pay-per-view event topped one million buys in 2017.
That said, there’s plenty to love in this wild sport. Fighters like Demetrious Johnson, Max Holloway, Cris Cyborg and a host of others are a joy to watch. MMA is still the purest sport out there, with the toughest and bravest athletes still fueling that fire.
But those athletes, and the promotions that promote them, don’t always help their own cause of advancing the sport beyond hardcore fans and the sports-bar crowd.
With the sun rising on 2018, here’s hoping for a great year for the sport we love. To do that, we first have to say goodbye to those moments we’d most like to forget.