Why are fans so forgiving after UFC 330?
A double main event with Ian Garry & Mackenzie Dern was as bad as could be expected.
UFC fans deserve better, yet keep paying for more of the same punishment and scolding the skeptics how wrong they are for their criticism.
UFC 330 played out exactly the way I thought it would. It was a decent show until the last two fights and then it reached all-time stinker territory. Don’t let the Internet contrarians gaslight you into believing otherwise.
Remember how we talked about how horrible Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie was at UFC 5? Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Garry was just as bad, if not worse.
A battle over size and poor footwork. It was a curious fight to watch for the first round or two. Then the fight went nowhere and never stopped swirling into a vortex.
The only consistent heat from the crowd was a loud “Fuck you, Garry!” chant.
Not because of his fight performance but because of who the crowd perceives Ian Garry to be as a person.
Yes, personal feuds draw money in combat sports. But the fans were treating the UFC 330 main event as if they were feuding with Garry. And yet it felt like some sort of projection by the audience.
The irony of paying to sit in a chair and watch a fighter who is hated for allegedly being a cuckold is completely lost on fans who don’t seem to realize they are the cuckolds, spending thousands of dollars sitting and watching the action take place — the very thing they mock Garry for.
The anticipation for Islam Makhachev’s UFC 330 fight was undeniable. In a non-circus capacity, he is the UFC’s biggest star. Sean Strickland and Paddy Pimblett are co-number twos, with Arman Tsarukyan not far behind.
The MMA Draw is a combat sports newsletter aspiring to excellence. It’s our passion and job to analyze and promote quality in this industry.
However, we’re willing to call balls and strikes.
When a card is good, wonderful, we’ll sing its praises. When a card is bad, we’re happy to tell you.
The UFC has had a mediocre summer, at best.
First, there was the controversial Trump Freedom 250 White House card, where the politics and negative media attention given to low-grade trolling like Josh Hokit taking a cheap shot at former First Lady Michelle Obama or Sean Strickland in a hoodie desperately trying to get negative attention from law enforcement. What a bunch of rebels.
Then there was the long-awaited return of Conor McGregor at UFC 329, which managed to be embarrassing for everyone involved without offering any entertainment or sporting value whatsoever.
And then at UFC 330 we had another five rounds of women’s Strawweight champ Mackenzie Dern yet again struggling to defeat an opponent who was utterly devoid of offensive capacity.
Dern has a unique ability to have fans loudly cheer her into a cage only to end up screaming like boo-birds by the end. Enjoy that ride.
Yet, nothing is ever wrong enough to really piss off the fans. This billion-dollar treadmill keeps turning.
This current UFC fan base is paying high ticket prices and subscribing to Paramount+ no matter how bad or boring the bouts, intrigue-free match-ups, and unpromising contenders. Eternal optimism from fans who pretty much hate everything politically about the current state of American affairs.
They are all Scott Barrett.
Nobody in the UFC ever gets blamed or takes responsibility
Even the NFL isn’t immune to political and customer boycotts (see: Colin Kaepernick). The football behemoth is regularly criticized for a watered-down product, inflated ticket prices, a push for more regular season games, and an ever-expanding international slate of games like sending the San Francisco 49ers to play in both Australia and Mexico City this year.
The UFC has the most forgiving sports/entertainment fans in all of American sports. When a fight stinks, nobody blames the promoter or the matchmaker. The promotion continues drawing $5 million-plus gates for their numbered events. (UFC 330 drew a reported $6.3M gate.)
It doesn’t matter if the UFC’s media partner is ESPN or Paramount, the audience happily subscribes to a subpar streaming service.
Fans pay four figures for live event tickets.
The fans seem to know, or care even less about, the fighters and their records than the semi-retired commentary team of Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan.
Don’t even get me started on our favorite brand ambassador, Dana White, who openly referenced AI on his phone to answer questions at the post-fight presser.
In every other sport, there are constant complaints about ticket prices or watered-down product quality. The UFC seems completely immune to consumer backlash.
When a highly anticipated fight fails to deliver action or drama and turns out to be a boring affair, the fans just sit there and take it.
The UFC brand is the new “protecting the Shield” that the NFL’s Roger Goodell spent decades building into an unstoppable force.
No one even blames matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard, who seem to be using an off-brand AI to set up bouts. Perhaps the pro version of Claude could do a better job. It’s all plug-and-play like charging your phone with a USB cable.
Take, for example, this crazy stat on Twitter from an account called MMAPredictionGuru:
Here’s Blaine Henry pointing out a depressing obviousness:
A month ago, Twitter exploded after seeing Weili Zhang hyping a glow-up. Where did the UFC’s star power go?
In an era where other sports leagues face constant scrutiny about product quality while media rights deals are exploding in value (see: English Premier League), UFC has cultivated a rare, self-sustaining ecosystem where the brand itself is the only attraction, and fans don’t seem to care beyond putting in their credit card information.
There’s no better example of this than watching American politicians tripping over themselves to offer globs of taxpayer cash in massive government contracts to pay The Ari Emanuel Tax to bring the TKO circus to town (that’ll be extra if you want Power Slap on Wednesday night before the fights).
TKO, the safest political payoff in town
The original political theme of UFC 330 was the warm welcome extended by Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
Shapiro was even happy to join Dana White on The Pat McAfee Show when the UFC was taking a beating for tying itself to a deeply unpopular Donald Trump.
The Governor fancies himself a candidate for the 2028 Democratic US Presidential nomination. Maybe four or even years ago, a supposed centrist in a Blue Wall state and huge ally of Israel might have sold well to US Democrats. Not so much now.
Governor Shapiro is part of Ari Emanuel’s close inner US political circle. They met with President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, last October in Aspen, Colorado.
Whether it’s Shapiro, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, or riot-making brother Rahm, Ari Emanuel is the man that Democrat politicians kiss up to for Hollywood cash.
This is doubly true after Ari single-handedly shut off the Hollywood cash from former President Joe Biden and ended the elderly POTUS’ re-election hopes.
Ari Emanuel is deeply involved in the Paramount/Warner Brothers Discovery merger fight. There is a reason The MMA Draw claims Ari is one of the five most powerful unelected power brokers in American politics.
Part of the sales pitch? Buying shows from TKO’s event portfolio in the form of large government contracts. Tax credits, Financial Incentive Packages, you name it.
Bringing the circus to town is a pretty safe bet for American politicians in 2026.
If you are an American politician, Democrat or Republican, Ari Emanuel and his financial muscle Egon Durban of Silver Lake, are two guys you want on your side. They are the system in American sports and entertainment.
Two weeks ago, the Arizona Sports & Event Alliance held a presser to announce a giant government contract to TKO. You name it, it’s part of the deal. PBR. Zuffa Boxing. WWE. UFC Noche.
When The MMA Draw started labeling TKO as a government contractor in 2023, we saw exactly what the corporate vision was. Northrop Grumman. Boeing.
What has amazed us is just how in-your-face the political transactions are and how few people even blink an eye.
Paying massive taxpayer cash for fights is now public policy.
A reason why it’s public policy is that TKO customers are more than happy to pay exorbitant prices for a mediocre product, which enriches the very types of people these same customers claim to hate when they go to the ballot box.
The UFC audience has been conditioned to accept every fight as premium, the same way people view Dior or Gucci or Rolex. The promotion itself is the star. It’s an unquestioned fight deity. Every new government contract reinforces UFC as the NFL of combat sports.
It doesn’t help that there is no large media outlet willing to challenge the UFC.
WME’s ability to influence the corporate media ecosystem and nominally independent streamers means they have silenced all the critical voices who reach the big time. Nobody is resisting the TKO takeover.
The last people standing are the attorneys and fighters in a Las Vegas Federal courtroom fighting an uphill battle over antitrust.
The UFC has all the power with none of the downside with their customers. Every other sports league wishes they had that kind of fan arrangement.
Zach Arnold is lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com.