Business has never been better for TKO, the parent company of both UFC and WWE that is currently working on building a third monopsony with its new Zuffa Boxing promotion. The product they’re putting in front of the fans? That’s gotten arguably worse, with a growing portion of WWE fans in full revolt against high prices and cost-cutting measures.
UFC fans are less organized but it’s hard to ignore the growing discontent from those who have noticed we’ve only seen one real UFC title defense in 2026
and a whole lot of weak Fight Night content. During a TKO earnings call, an investor asked executive directly Mark Shapiro about the decline.
“There’s also been a lot of noise about weaker UFC cards lately,” the unnamed investor stated. “In your view, what’s going on and what are you guys doing to improve?”
“Look, bottom line is we don’t buy it,” Shapiro responded. “Let’s just start with this premise, right? The product is great at the UFC. The brand has never been stronger. Our reach has never been greater. So the foundational elements of UFC are in concrete. Anyone that came to our last numbered fight in Miami, which was UFC 327, was flat out blown away. Or anyone that went to our last fight night, which happened to be last weekend in Perth, Australia, a sellout, or even watched it, witnessed an extraordinary sport.”
“Look, we are always building at the UFC,” he continued. “We’re in the building phase at all times. We find the best up and coming talent around the world and we match them continually in the best fights. There’s huge movement right now with all these young fighters coming up in the ranks. Many of them are taking over slots in in the top 10 from guys that have been names in the rankings for years. Strong personalities that are busting just now. Joshua Van, Brazilian Carlos Pretes [sic], undefeated Michael Morales, the next generation.”
“Or look at the White House card, which we put out there as a strong card. We’ve actually added a card to it, UFC Freedom 250, which is stacked top to bottom, and we’re using that opportunity to feature one of our most promising stars in Ilia Topuria. Dana White and his team have been doing this for twenty five years.”
Shapiro suggested any difficulties in creating new stars came from the unpredictable reality of sports, where you don’t control who wins and loses and therefore who can reach that next level of super-stardom.
“The real truth of it is that we don’t get to determine who wins, it doesn’t work like that,” Shapiro said. “You take these great personalities who hail from every corner of the world with exciting fighting styles, and if they win, you’ve caught lightning in a bottle. That’s what we do. That’s what Dana White does. And there’s no better matchmakers in any sport than we have with Dana’s team of Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby, and Mick Maynard.”
“I’d remind you finally that with any sport, there’s just natural ebbs and flows, right?” he concluded. “It’s all very cyclical. Again, kind of hearkening back to the ESPN days, the NBA was on fire with Michael Jordan and then he left and there was a bit of a dip. And then all of a sudden, it was Shaq and Kobe. And as long as Shaq and Kobe were in the NBA finals, the NBA was in good shape.”
“But the year they weren’t there and or they were playing the Nets or the San Antonio Spurs were there, there was a fall off. And they needed more stars, and everybody talked about it and yearned and cried and commented. There was no social back then, but there was still a lot of noise.”
This is a bit of a different situation where the UFC has a massive roster with a large number of big names, but seems content to place as few of those names on each card as they can get away with, and not even in the biggest fights that could be made. As we learned very well with the UFC White House card, how much a fight costs the UFC often determines whether or not it will happen. And as we watch the WWE tell its superstars to accept a paycut or leave, how can we not think similar penny pinching isn’t going on behind the scenes in the UFC?
For now, Shapiro says the goose continues to pump out golden eggs so there’s clearly no problem. But you can only squeeze that thing so much before you kill it. It’s never a good sign when a growing number of fans are talking more about how cheap and awful the parent company running your sport is than the sport itself.
