As all sports and media conglomerates do, things have ups and downs in business. Sometimes a certain product can be very strong, and then it can be very bad. We’ve seen it time and time again over the years. Maybe your favorite TV show had a really good first season, but the second season sucked. Maybe your favorite Football team were Super Bowl contenders, and now they can’t get a win to save their lives. But, what if there’s two sports under one umbrella and suddenly, they’re both bad? Something WWE and UFC fans know all too well.
TKO Group Holdings, Inc. is a massive sports and sports entertainment company which was established in 2023, and now comprises WWE and UFC. The mega company holds the keys to two of the biggest sports organizations in the world, but is it just a money grab? People seemed optimistic at first, maybe thinking we could see some cross-overs, and maybe WWE would get more of a “real” feeling to it with potential of a TV-14 upgrade. But, the reality is, none of that happened and probably never will.
Looking at it from a fans perspective, it seems like TKO is just trying to milk WWE and UFC (and the fans!) for all the money they can before the well runs dry. Let’s cut to the chase, the WWE product is lazy, it’s uninspired, and it’s the same old stuff every single week. And guess what? So is the UFC. This isn’t anything new with WWE. They always have eras that fans in real time will complain about. Maybe Hulk Hogan was at the top for too long, maybe we saw The Rock & Stone Cold too much, maybe John Cena was in the main event scene a little too long. All valid criticisms for the time it was in. But now, it seems the never-stopping Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns & co. era is in full effect.
Every single week on RAW, you know how the show is going to end. There’s going to be a brawl between any combination of Roman, Cody, Punk & The Vision. Every world title will be held by one of those guys, every PLE will be headlined by them, and every time Triple H says we will see something new and exciting, it usually isn’t. I will give WWE props, though, as it seems we’re heading towards CM Punk defending his World Title against Bron Breakker, which is good. A fresh, monstrous young talent who has the “it factor”. But with all this talk about NXT and “The Future”, you’d think there would be more Bron’s and less 40+ year old men holding world titles. Is WWE really trying to market off of strictly 3-4 guys’ name power to sell tickets, get fans to spend money, and not build new stars? It seems so.
It’s the same old stuff. Every. Single. Time. Take a look at this past weekend’s Survivor Series: War Games event. Another WWE PLE that was hyped up, only to be subpar, with a lackluster ending that left fans complaining, while Triple H gets on the post-show and touts how great it was because the numbers looked good and it sold out. Boring. Yet again, WWE is not the only one with this issue. Let’s take a look at WWE’s TKO partner, UFC. UFC is supposed to be a real sport, with real integrity, but that’s laughable at this point. Let’s be real, WWE can hand pick Roman Reigns to be their guy. They can make Brock Lesnar come in with zero prior matches, zero contenders wins, after being gone for years, and give him a title shot. They can do that because they’re entertainment. They’re not really having matches to see “who’s better” because it’s pre-determined. UFC can’t, but they are.
UFC has suddenly become more like WWE than ever before and it’s a strange time in the world of MMA. UFC fans, media and even some fighters have let their displeasures known, but it just seems to be getting worse. Two very big examples of this came recently, first with the UFC Featherweight Division. Alexander Volkanovski is the current UFC Featherweight Champion. He’s coming off of a win against Diego Lopes back in April for the title, which was vacant at the time. In that period of time, there have been two rising contenders, the #1 ranked contender in the world Movsar Evloev, who is undefeated at 19-0, and Lerone Murphy, the #5 ranked contender, who is 17-0, and on a 9 fight win streak in the UFC. Both men have been campaigning for a title shot. Then, on Thursday, UFC announced that Alexander Volkanovski will defend his title against… Diego Lopes. Again.
Why? Star power. That’s it. Does he deserve it? No. Is he popular? Yes. Diego lost to Alexander Volkanovski in decisive fashion. Since then, Diego did win a fight against the up and coming Jean Silva when he TKO’d him in September. The crowd reaction to that win was huge, no doubt, but does one win, after losing to the champion previously, earn you another title shot? It shouldn’t. Especially when two other guys are undefeated and should be ahead of you, and Movsar Evloev has a win over Diego Lopes, as well as other former champions.
It’s also rumored that this could be Alexander Volkanovski’s last fight, as he’s spoken about retirement. So, Lerone and Movsar may never get to challenge Alex, who’s widely considered one of the best ever and a ‘GOAT’ of the UFC Featherweight Division. Lerone has recently spoke out about his shock when hearing Diego was chosen as the next title challenger. Even Lerone mentions he got into MMA as opposed to Boxing because he felt there were less politics and we just get to see the best fight the best. Sadly, he was mistaken.
Another insane announcement that also came on Thursday, was that Ilia Topuria, the UFC Lightweight Champion, won’t be able to fight for the foreseeable future, so UFC will be having an interim title fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett. Immediately this infuriated fans, as Justin Gaethje is #4 ranked and Paddy is ranked #5. While Paddy is undefeated in the UFC at 7-0, two biggest wins are over an older Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler. Gaethje on the other hand, has publicly said many times that he would retire if he didn’t get the next title shot, has forced UFC’s hand while on a one fight winning streak. All the while, Arman Tsarukyan is on a 5 fight win streak, is ranked #1, was given a title shot before he was injured and couldn’t make the fight, and still couldn’t get put into the interim title bout. Every other interim title bout in the past has seen the #1 contender in that bout, but not now!
Not only that, Arman just picked up another win on November 22, where he choked out Dan Hooker in the second round while main eventing UFC Fight Night: Qatar. Arman would be happy to turn around and fight for the interim title on January 24, but UFC didn’t give it to him. Again, similar to the Featherweight division, is Gaethje a big name? Yes. Does he deserve a title fight? No. Paddy is on a five fight winning streak, I’ll give him that, and him vs. Arman would make sense, but is UFC capitalizing on Paddy’s big English fan base? Absolutely. Paddy can talk, he can sell tickets, he dances, he’s funny, he has wild antics, and I guess that’s all you need to get a title shot. I’m not saying Paddy isn’t talented, he is, and so is Gaethje, but Arman getting the short end of the stick, because maybe he doesn’t promote himself enough, maybe he’s not funny, maybe he can’t talk as good as others, is absolute bullshit.
MMA is a skill-based sport, where we’re supposed to see the cream rise to the top and see the best fight the best, but in recent years, it more-so feels like we’re seeing the most popular fight the most popular. The biggest names, regardless of wins, fighting the biggest names, just to sell tickets and pay-per-views. Eerily similar to WWE, huh? Maybe TKO is just lazy and uninspired, looking for any way to make a quick buck. This isn’t sports anymore, it’s a money grab. Do better, sincerely, fans worldwide.
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