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Mark O'Connell's avatar

This is one of the most fascinating articles I've read in months. I don't follow MMA but have heard rumblings of a monetary "recession" in the sport for some time. The cause of it in my view is the fact that the people who run the UFC want people to watch the UFC not generally MMA. I am certain there are stars in other MMA promotions who would love to come to the UFC but there might be a contractual issue or a pay disparity in moving.

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Nate Wilcox, EIC The MMA Draw's avatar

thanks. Sadly the UFC has effectively killed most of the other promotions so there are no stars available to be signed.

At least no stars familiar to the UFC fanbase.

There are some regional European promotions that are doing well locally --KSW in Poland -- and KSW fighters have been turning down UFC contracts because they make more money in KSW.

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Mark O'Connell's avatar

Wow

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Kristofo13's avatar

One thingl you forget Nate, Dwayne Johnson is in the TKO board of directors.

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Nate Wilcox, EIC The MMA Draw's avatar

Ah I should have mentioned that. Definitely something I'm aware of. And with Vince and his almost 9% of shares out there, they have to be nice to Dwayne.

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Kristofo13's avatar

Absolutely, but you're right about UFC and WWE. They really killed the star system long before TKO came in the picture, just like Hollywood kinda killed it too when almost every studio went into franchise mode.

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Nate Wilcox, EIC The MMA Draw's avatar

yea I could've gotten into the whole "Zuffa monopolized MMA globally before selling to TKO in 2016 and Vince McMahon did the same to pro wrestling in the US..." thing but I didn't.

It's funny that TKO is repeating Hollywood's mistakes when that's the context in which Endeavor failed to thrive as a public company and forced Ari into sports to get his first billion $.

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Kristofo13's avatar

You only need to look at Disney to see the shit they got themselves into. Me and my elder brother weren't fooled after the San Diego Comic Con last year, they brought Robert Downey Jr. and the Russo brothers back out of desperation.

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