UFC 324: 3 big questions as Saturday ushers in a new era for the UFC

Rejoice, fight followers. The UFC’s lengthy winter slumber has ended. The world’s main MMA promotion is again with UFC 324 this week, and now it’s not just a new yr that’s starting. It’s a entire new era … type of.

Quick standing update, just so all of us perceive the current lay of the land. Saturday’s event from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas might be the first under the UFC’s new broadcast cope with Paramount. That means followers right here in the U.S. can watch the entire factor for just $8.99 — the current value of the most cost-effective Paramount+ subscription plan. Just last month, when the UFC was still on ESPN+, an event of the same or comparable caliber would have value you $79.99, in addition to the $12.99 subscription plan.

So in other phrases, yeah, worth of the brick just went method down. And that never occurs.

Here’s the place a cheap particular person may ask: So what are we getting for our cash now that the UFC is making a lot from Paramount that it doesn’t must dig fairly as deeply into our pockets (for now)? Here’s a few issues to contemplate:

1. Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje are preventing for one thing, however the title of world’s best light-weight certain ain’t it

There’s one thing about this matchup that I genuinely like. It has a story. It has stakes. But, let’s be trustworthy, those stakes should not the UFC light-weight title. That resides with Ilia Topuria, who received it truthful and sq. and has yet to lose it. If you need to inform me this interim version is the next best factor, nicely, first you’d want to elucidate why the consensus No. 1 contender isn’t concerned in it (and also you’d need to do better than just telling me Dana White is mad at him).

So let’s inform it like it’s: The UFC needed a enjoyable stylistic pairing that includes two lightweights with one thing resembling present fan bases. That’s the only method Pimblett finally ends up in this fight. His greatest UFC wins all got here against guys who had been pushing 40 at the time. He has not (yet) constructed a championship résumé for himself, however he’s enjoyable and brash and followers keep in mind him even when he doesn’t have a fight booked, which is more than half the battle these days.

Then on the other facet you might have Gaethje. For a while there he appeared like he was never more than one good punch away from a UFC title. It never occurred for him, and now he’s 37 and eyeing the exit. The pondering among his team appears to be: If you may’t beat this man for the proper to at the very least say you had another version of a UFC title, why maintain hanging round and taking the hits? And yeah, that’s arduous to argue with. There will never be a better likelihood than this. Not for Gaethje. Not at this point in his profession. He must make this one depend. Which means he’s preventing not just for metallic and leather-based, however for his profession and legacy and identification.

That’s heavy, man. And while I could have still balked at this being the only “title” fight on a numbered UFC event again when these issues value $80 plus the subscription worth, for $8.99 I discover myself feeling a lot more forgiving. Let’s see how lengthy that lasts.

2. But hey, in the big image sense, anybody else feeling like the UFC is on the precipice of major change?

Look round. The first few months of 2026 in the UFC have been principally mapped out and now we have precisely one (1) precise, undisputed title fight booked. Even that one — a rematch between featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and challenger Diego Lopes, who was soundly defeated in his first try last yr — is one that nobody requested for. Is this all a consequence of holding the great things until the White House event in June? Or is it the result of an incentive construction that shifted big time the second Paramount ponied up a billion bucks per yr for the broadcast rights?

Ask the head honcho White about it and also you’ll get the same rote reply: “If you don’t like it, don’t watch.” That’s been his response for 15 years, however now he appears virtually bored of listening to himself say it.

Also, now he genuinely doesn’t need to care. Paramount is paying big, big bucks whether or not anybody watches or doesn’t. From a live occasions and TV manufacturing standpoint, the UFC is a well-oiled machine that not wants White’s hand on the throttle every week. Which is nice, because he appears less than ever. It’s as if the towering monetary success of the UFC has sucked all the enjoyable out of it for him. More and more, he may as nicely be strolling round with a shirt that says: I’d somewhat be podcasting. Or working a slap-fighting league. Or producing a present that’s primarily what-if-TUF-but-NASCAR-trucks. Or making an attempt to take over boxing. Anything however this.

The UFC’s lone undisputed title bout of 2026 so far — a rematch of a fight we just noticed in April.

(Chris Unger by way of Getty Images)

It’s not just White, both. The fits behind TKO Group Holdings have hacked the code on squeezing every last dime out of these fight sports activities properties. Just take a look at the WWE, which is poised to make a bunch of cash bringing the Royal Rumble to Riyadh next week, the place there are precise royals paying for the privilege of internet hosting it. Or take a look at Zuffa Boxing, which debuts at the (newly renamed) Meta APEX this Friday, with no real try and hype up any of the precise fighters competing on the card.

In phrases of cash in and cash out, this feels prefer it’s actually a golden age for the UFC. But does it really feel that method as a UFC fan? Because to me, as somebody who’s adopted this sport and this promotion for shut to a few many years now, it seems like our viewership is taken just about for granted these days. And it’s arduous to see how that modifications when the river of cash retains flowing whether or not we’re joyful or not.

(*3*)3. In phrases of pure person experience, what can we count on after we activate Paramount+ this Saturday?

One of the smartest issues UFC ever did was keep an iron grip by itself TV manufacturing. In the early days, this was principally pragmatic. The sport was very new and really area of interest. You couldn’t depend on any outdated cable network to grasp it and get it proper. Plus, for all his other faults, White always appeared to have an virtually preternatural understanding of TV manufacturing. This served the UFC extraordinarily nicely, however also stored the feel and look of UFC occasions just about uniform as the promotion moved from Spike TV to FOX to ESPN.

That half in all probability received’t change now on Paramount. The UFC upgraded the broadcast team by including Kate Scott, however in any other case count on more or less the same voices saying the same issues. (Jon Anik, as always, might be extraordinarily skilled and well-prepared. Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping might be enjoyable and opinionated however in all probability still received’t completely know the guidelines or judging standards of the sport they’ve spent their complete grownup lives in and round.)

Personally, what I ask of this new dwelling for UFC occasions is that it ship a better viewer experience than ESPN+ did. That shouldn’t be too arduous. If the streaming app really works the method it’s purported to every time, then that proper there’s an upgrade. If CBS retains pushing the UFC on issues like NFL broadcasts (and for a billy a yr, it has incentive to), possibly the sport even positive aspects some new followers.

The big draw back to this transfer is the threat of falling utterly off the radar of John Q. Sportsfan now that you’re not on ESPN. Go to virtually any bar in America with TVs caught to the wall and chances are high good that at the very least one in all them is exhibiting ESPN all day, every day. The UFC actually benefitted from that. Sandwiched between NFL highlights and NBA news, it joined the mainstream sports activities tapestry. Paramount can’t actually ship that same punch. And when ESPN not has the same skin in the MMA game, it’ll virtually actually tone its MMA coverage method, method down.

That’s a loss. But again, the UFC is being extraordinarily nicely compensated for that trade-off. You just hope that it’s not mortgaging the future in the course of.

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UFC 324: 3 big questions as Saturday ushers in a new era for the UFC