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Seven Reasons Why UFC Ratings Are Worse Than Ever

The action in the Octagon has been solid, but ratings are not. Here’s why.

The post Seven Reasons Why UFC Ratings Are Worse Than Ever appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

If you are a mixed martial arts fan, and I assume you are if you’re reading this list, it’s obvious the landscape of MMA has drastically changed in the last several years. So much so, in some instances, the sport is nearly unrecognizable.

It’s fair to point out that all major sports are suffering from a “new era” of content consumption and MMA is no different. But why has MMA, and in particular, the UFC suffered such a drastic decline in viewership these last few years, with cards on FOX Sports 1 and FOX bringing some of the lowest numbers ever and even a superfight-headlined card like UFC 226 earning only a reported 400,000 buys?

We here at Lowkick have compiled a list of the seven reasons why the UFC ratings are worse than ever. Check them out:

Too Many Shows

We could have worded this many different ways, but the fact remains the same, the MMA industry is simply way too oversaturated. There may be only a handful of high-level promotions operation in today’s combat sports climate; the UFC, Bellator, and the PFL come to mind. But rest assured, there are dozens of regional promotions that contribute to the weekly blitz of mixed martial arts.

In 2017 the UFC hosted a total of 39 events (including 12 PPVs, 4 UFC on FOX, 2 TUF Finales). The UFC is scheduled to hit that very same mark this year, once again reaching 39 events in a 12-month span. Compare that to 41, which was the number of events the Endeavor-owned promotion promoted in 2016.

It’s not necessarily that the UFC is solely responsible for the oversaturation of MMA; the numbers just don’t support that claim. But there was a time, not too long ago, that the only MMA on TV was the UFC, and even that was challenging to find the proper channel at times.

The sheer number of events makes each week’s card less special, and both the PPV buys and TV ratings show that.

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Anderson Silva Reacts To UFC Disrespecting Him

Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva is not too happy with the UFC right now. When UFC 200’s main event fell out just two days away form the card after Jon Jones was flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and pulled from his highly-anticipated clash with Daniel Cormier to unify the

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Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva is not too happy with the UFC right now.

When UFC 200’s main event fell out just two days away form the card after Jon Jones was flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and pulled from his highly-anticipated clash with Daniel Cormier to unify the light heavyweight titles, Silva would step in to save the card and take on Cormier at the 205-pound weight class.

During a recent interview with UOL Esporte, Silva stated that he has yet to even receive a ‘thank you’ from UFC President Dana White for stepping in for Jones:

“I haven’t even received a ‘thank you’ from Dana (White), or Lorenzo (Fertitta) after the last fight,” Silva said. “Of course, I was the one who wanted to fight, who took the bout, but I know my worth, my importance.

“I was very disappointed with the lack of respect that the UFC has been treating the Brazilian athletes with. I’m an athlete who took the sport to another level. I don’t get, or have got, people’s due respect. This has made me very upset, sad, and disappointed with the UFC.”

Silva recently fought current UFC champion Michael Bisping in a main event clash at UFC Fight Night 84 this past February, and a controversial flying knee at the end of the third round that dropped Bisping made ‘The Spider’ thought he had won the fight.

This was not the case, however, as Silva walked away from Bisping after landing the strike and did not attempt to finish the fight, not to mention referee Herb Dean did not signal for the finish.

Silva believes he won that fight, and also revealed that the UFC offered him to be on standby incase anything happens to Dan Henderson of Bisping ahead of their title clash at UFC 204 this weekend.

UFC executives did not offer this opportunity to Silva directly, but instead offered it to the Brazilian star through his representatives, another action making Silva feel disrespected even more:

“I didn’t talk to them or anyone else,” he said of UFC executives. “They even offered me to be on standby in case something happened to (Michael) Bisping or (Dan) Henderson (before Saturday’s UFC 204 in England). But the most absurd thing is how it got to me. They didn’t even talk to me – my representatives passed it along.

“I’m not a message guy. After everything I’ve done, I have to be on standby for a fight I won? I thought it was a little unpleasant.”

Silva believes he has done things inside the Octagon that nobody else has been able to replicate, and also reminded the mixed martial arts community that UFC President Dana White also at one point referred to him as the pound-for-pound greatest fighter in the world.

After all the great things Silva has done for the sport of MMA and for the UFC itself, he is very disappointed with the treatment he has received as of late:

“I will say it again: I’m very disappointed with the way they’ve been treating me, I’m very saddened by all of this,” he said. “I wasn’t the one who said I was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Dana White said it. Maybe he said it to promote his event, or because he really felt that way. We’ll never know the truth.

“Fact is that everything I’ve done, no one else was able to do again. I don’t mean to be conceited, arrogant, think I’m the best, but what I set out to do this entire time was to show I was different than the others. And this is not my opinion, it’s everyone’s.”

Silva has yet to be booked in a bout as of this writing, but given the things that ‘The Spider’ has said now it would be a surprise if we see him compete any time soon before mending the relationship between him and promotion.

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Lorenzo Fertitta & Dana White On Recent Sale Rumors: We Own The UFC

Over the last month or so, multiple reports have surfaced indicating that the UFC had indeed been sold for a record setting $4.2 billion dollars. The reports claimed that a bid had been accepted and that an announcement was likely to come around the time of this weekend’s (Sat., July 9, 2016) blockbuster UFC 200

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Throughout the midst of these rumors, there has yet to be official confirmation from the promotion, and it looks as if the UFC brass is sticking to its guns in terms of denying the reports.

UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta recently spoke to the LA Times on the situation, saying that there’s simply nothing to report and that his love for the sport of mixed martial arts remains intact:

“If we bring on an investor or something happens, we’ll let everyone know. I’ve never been more bullish on the business. I still have massive love for the sport. I never said I was walking away. What’s happening — this is standard. Any company, this size and magnitude, you don’t talk about things you’re working on in strategical terms. So there’s nothing to report.”

Piggy backing off of what Fertitta had to say, UFC President Dana White added that the rumors are ‘unbelievable’. White also confirmed that he and the Fertitta brothers still own the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion:

“I’m in Bangor, Maine [recently], and people are yelling at me, ‘Congratulations!’ I’m looking at my family, saying, ‘Most of the free world thinks me and the Fertittas don’t own the UFC anymore.’ It’s unbelievable. We own the UFC. We did not sell the UFC. We own it.”

We have seen the UFC brass say one thing and do another on multiple occasions, but as of now it seems as if they will remain in ownership of the UFC – or so they say. Do you see the company selling in the near future?

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