When the UFC announced its deal with FOX earlier this year, it was assumed by most that the sport was primed to hit new highs in 2012, but with major stars either injured or retiring, the new year could be harder than most anticipated.
In the past few months, the UFC has lost its three biggest PPV draws for various amounts of time.
Anderson Silva is suffering from a shoulder injury and is likely out until mid-2012, Georges St-Pierre blew out his knee and will miss most or all of the new year and Brock Lesnar officially retired from the sport after his loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141.
These three have headlined most of the major UFC events over the past three years, and their loss cannot be overstated.
Luckily for the UFC, there is still hope for PPV buys to increase in 2012, even without their biggest draws available.
2011 was undoubtedly the year of Jon Jones, and as long as he is still primed and ready to compete in 2012, the UFC should be able to reach their goals.
Throw in the emergence of champions Frankie Edgar, Jose Aldo and Junior dos Santos and the organization has plenty of exciting fighters to hold their own in terms of PPV buys.
Perhaps more important than the champions is the crop of contenders that have moved into title contention over the past 12 months.
Urijah Faber is one of the most popular fighters in the sport today, and he has earned himself a title fight against Dominick Cruz at some point in the new year, and other top draws like Rashad Evans, Overeem and Chael Sonnen could all get title opportunities in the next 12 months.
While the loss of Silva, GSP and Lesnar will definitely hurt the organization going forward, they have proven time and time again that they don’t have to rely on stars to sell fights and they have a great group of new potential stars waiting in the wings to pick up where the others left off.
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