UFC roundtable discussion: As promotion touts record profits, was 2024 actually a good year for UFC?

As has been the case for the last few years, UFC continues lead the way in record-breaking events. The promotion closed out 2024 with another record live gate in Tampa on Dec. 14 after piling up successes throughout the year on PPV. UFC recorded five of its top 10 live gates all time in 2024 UFC CEO Dana White said it’s only the beginning after UFC 310. 

“We say this every year. Every year we say this is the best year. ‘How do we do better next year?’ This is literally what we say every year. We just keep doing it, I don’t know,” White said. “Guess what, last year was the best year in UFC history. And the year before that was. Let’s keep it rolling. 

“It’s everything. The Sphere — who saw that coming? Obviously, financially it goes to another level. Creatively, I think it goes to another level. I like to break records. We talk about New York [Madison Square Garden], we’re seven of the top 10 [live gates all time]. This coming year, we’ll be eight of the top 10. Eventually we’ll be 10 of the top 10. Think about that. Madison Square Garden. We weren’t allowed to go into New York. All the big events that have been there. Within a couple of years, the UFC will be 10 of the top 10 gates of all time at Madison Square Garden.”

While the financials of the promotion speak for themselves, some have wondered whether or not there could be some trouble ahead for the company as they struggle to find the next breakout, crossover star. With all that in mind, the experts at CBS Sports sat down to discuss what happened in 2024 and how they would judge the UFC’s year as a whole.

BRIAN CAMPBELL, senior combat sports writer: A question like this depends upon your level of nuisance and understanding, not to mention your perspective. From a financial and business standpoint, 2024 was a monster success for UFC (and, by proxy, parent company’s TKO Group and Endeavor). The promotion produced yet another record-breaking year for revenue and international growth while only continuing to increase its influence among the coveted 18-to-29 male demographic in the U.S. So, what about breakthrough events? UFC had a handful of those, too, including an incredibly loaded UFC 300 anniversary card in April and the much-hyped debut of combat sports at The Sphere in Las Vegas for UFC 306 in September. The promotion also further deepened its business relationships with financial surplus nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

But, while UFC live events remained an intriguing getaway destination for deep-pocketed casual fans, many of whom align from a status standpoint with the right-wing politics which dominate many UFC pay-per-view broadcasts, it’s difficult to say whether the happiness of hardcore fans still matters much to UFC’s decision makers. Ticket prices have skyrocketed to almost unthinkable levels just as the quality of matchmaking has consistently been watered down. Not only is there a lack of crossover stars on the roster, it seems of late as if UFC isn’t all that interested in spending the money to create new ones given the promotion’s new assembly line approach of churning out nameless and replaceable fighters on “The Dana White Contender Series” for relatively cheap pay. UFC might be as financially strong as at any point in history these days, but it’s starting to feel as if the promotion’s only real competition in terms of future growth resides in the greed of its upper management to extract every possible cent out of its most loyal fans, regardless of the long-term danger of what that means toward retaining fans. From that standpoint, 2024 felt just as much as a harbinger of future doom as it did a celebration of what the world’s best fight promotion is capable of accomplishing. 

BRENT BROOKHOUSE, combat sports writer: While many of Brian’s complaints are legitimate, especially the Contender Series pipeline creating a sense of many fights on cards featuring a sense of plug-and-play replacement level fighters, I have recently come around to thinking the UFC is in a pretty good place in terms of the action in the cage. Setting aside Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall, I struggle to think of a fight that needs to be made that hasn’t manifested over the past few years. You could argue Magomed Ankalaev deserved a shot at Alex Pereira at some point in the past year, especially considering the UFC handed a shot at Pereira to Khalil Rountree (who was ranked No. 8 at the time), but Ankalaev also entered the year without a win since July 2022.

The UFC would be better off from a viewer’s enjoyment standpoint if they had to fill fewer cards, allowing more “stacked” events and less need for Contender Series filler. However, as fans, we’re eating pretty well when it comes to the best fighting the best in the Octagon. The problem is that the UFC’s business decisions have created a content churn of fights nearly every weekend that makes it a bit harder to appreciate the solid matchmaking happening at the top end of the promotion.

There is still problem with creating new stars and the UFC is very much to blame for that. Promotion of events rarely feels special outside of things like UFC 300 or the Sphere event, and it feels like you have to be fully plugged in to the sport and actively watching an event to be told how good the most uniquely talented fighters are. We’ve seen some new stars begin to emerge over the past year, but the UFC needs to figure out a way to market them to turn them into something approaching mainstream stars — if that’s even something the UFC is interested in creating anymore.

SHAKIEL MAHJOURI, combat sports writer: The UFC has fine-tuned its money-making formula: strengthen its brand to maximize ticket sales in major markets, reduce fighter leverage by minimally marketing them, guarantee bottom lines through its lucrative TV deal and cut costs by hosting cards at the UFC Apex. Mixed martial arts’ leading promotion is sitting pretty, particularly after settling one of two class-action lawsuits. If money is the motivating factor, the year was objectively successful for the UFC.

So what about card quality? My colleagues have it right. UFC’s cookie-cutter approach to its calendar has watered down the product. It’s hard for any card to stand out — even the good ones — when there is an event nearly every week. In 2024, the UFC produced 42 cards. The Sphere card is more memorable than almost any other this year only because it had a gimmick. When the cards have been bad, they’ve been bad. This year featured some of the least compelling headliners ever: Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev, Tai Tuivasa vs. Marcin Tybura, Derrick Lewis vs. Rodrigo Nascimento and Tybura vs. Serghei Spivac 2 (sorry, heavyweights). More bad UFC events stand out than good ones. That’s a shame because much good gets lost in UFC’s endless content stream.

Brent has a point about high-level matchmaking in 2024. Most of the big fights that could have been made were. The UFC seems less invested in champ vs. champ fights than before. White frequently insisted that Alex Pereira should stay at light heavyweight, didn’t give Israel Adesanya a light heavyweight title shot, and ignored chatter from various champions wanting to jump divisions. White even insists Jon Jones must fight Tom Aspinall next after pushing the interim heavyweight champ aside for 12 months. Maybe the promotion realized they needed to maximize their ability to put title fights on PPVs. It’s difficult to accomplish that when you burn two titles in one bout. I’ve complained for years about how superfights stall divisions. We finally have a healthy rotation of challengers in most weight classes. That’s great for athletes and consumers.

If we compare UFC’s quality to the 2014 to 2016 era that brought Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey to prominence, every year will fall short. Until UFC’s profit-over-product philosophy ceases, that will always be the case. But 2024 might be one of UFC’s better years this decade. Pereira and Topuria stepped up as potential superstars, flagship cards like UFC 300 and The Sphere stood out, and most divisions are healthy. If the UFC scales back the number of cards it produces annually, these victories will stand out more.