“Do the people who cover MMA even like the sport or the fighters anymore? Or is it just narratives and clicks to pay the bills?”
This comment from Will Harris on Twitter elicited a strong response regarding current disappointment from online UFC fans about the current state of affairs. You can read our response here.
The bottom line is that Hollywood has fully taken over both the substance and process of combat sports. However, their dominant emphasis is on process — the same thing that severely crippled the enjoyment and emotional connection so many people had with Hollywood movies for generations.
This week’s free episode of The MMA Draw podcast features a deep dive into three important UFC personalities: Dana White, Mark Shapiro, and Ali Abdelaziz.
As we recently highlighted, Mark Shapiro is the man responsible for driving a “Full Disney” operation on both UFC & WWE products.
Mark Shapiro, Ari Emanuel, Seth Krauss, and other TKO executives are not typical “fight people” like Dana White. They are monetizers who exploit weaknesses in systems.
If you ever studied law at university, on day one a good professor teaches their students the different between substance and process silos.
Substance in the fight business is about the quality of actual fights. Officiating. Announcing. Presentation. Things that matter to 99% of everyone.
Process in the fight business is about the mechanics. Monopolies. Media control. Sponsorships. Capital raises and investments. How something is produced. Who is producing it. Lobbyists. Politics. Law. Finance.
A key component to Hollywood’s decline has been a generation of obsession over process rather than substance. Imagine going to a magic show and listening to a magician spend 90 minutes obsessing over the process of producing a show rather than actually showing you the magic tricks. The genius of Penn & Teller’s Fool Us show is their careful awareness not to ruin the fun. Regrettably, ruining the fun is Mark Shapiro’s calling card in fight sports.
This week’s MMA Draw show podcast describes, with great clarity, the long-term damage being done and why things just don’t feel right. Why is Dana White shrinking before our very eyes in terms of engagement? Why is Ali Abdelaziz everywhere on camera and controlling UFC matchmaking? Why is Mark Shapiro on every Wall Street conference telling the public exactly how he’s going to screw over customers?
Because in the world of Hollywood, it’s not about whether a movie is great or bad. It’s all about whether it’s just good enough to extract enough cash to cycle through round after round of marks.
Hollywood obsesses over agents, billionaires, fundraisers, TV executive cocktail parties, and flaunting “my art” to the public. It’s not about the product. It’s about an obsession with navel gazing over their human greatness.
This Hollywood vision is now fully ingrained in the DNA of UFC. It’s about Ali Abdelaziz, Jason House, and Graham Boylan. The agents. What used to be Barry Bloom’s role with WWE a generation ago is now the role of Nick LoPiccolo at Paradigm, who just so happens to be Mike Tyson’s representative. Mr. Tyson just penned a letter to Congress endorsing the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Reform Act. Small world.
The video embedded in this article is from POST Wrestling (April 2023). Two and a half years later, it’s a scary reminder that Mark Shapiro warned you what was forthcoming with both UFC & WWE products. The WSJ gave the game away when they reported that Mr. Shapiro would be in charge of keeping both properties “fresh.”
This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast dissects The Mark Shapiro Blueprint and what it means for you as a fight fan.
You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:
Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.
Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.
