ESPN who? The Paramount refresh at UFC 320
Five fascinating takeaways from a subdued Las Vegas card.
When Mark Shapiro divorces you in business, it’s a hard divorce.
No niceties or pleasantries. Once a new mark pays up, you are old news. ESPN found this out the hard way after UFC 320.
Within minutes of Alex Pereira recapturing the UFC Light Heavyweight title in spectacular fashion against Magomed Ankalaev, TKO already posted the UFC 320 PPV main event on YouTube. At the time of publication, that video already had over eight million views.
So much for those ESPN PPV buy rates! PPV is dead, don’t you know?
If you didn’t know there was a show happening on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, I don’t blame you. The UFC office has not exactly gone out of its way to promote its last scheduled PPV events for ESPN. The company is already focused on building its new campaign for Paramount in the first half of 2026.
Don’t take it from me — take it from the horse’s mouth directly. Dana White is focusing on UFC’s big January 2026 event at Steve Ballmer’s palace (Intuit Dome), which also happens to be UFC’s big first Paramount event. Then there is the UFC White House event, which will absolutely suck all of the oxygen out of UFC creatively. It will also likely soak up millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, in taxpayer cash via the America250 government commission.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday revealed that the UFC White House event will happen on Sunday, June 14, 2026 — his birthday.
Meanwhile, ESPN is left advertising WWE events on its remaining UFC telecasts. How sad for them.
There were lots of interesting storylines developing at UFC 320 and even more that developed after the event.
Here are five big developments that caught our eye from a rather unique and clarifying UFC 320 event.