The UFC Still Should Not Build a PPV Around One Fight
While the promotion got lucky with six finishes in eight total bouts at UFC 177, it could have just as easily gone the other way and delivered a boring card. If it had, everyone would have been quick to jump on the UFC’s back for building a card on the strength of one title fight, and rightfully so.
UFC 177 delivered, but it’s clear that the UFC needs to focus on building their cards around more than one marquee bout. They often fail to live up to lofty expectations, and when they do, the card suffers as a whole. If the UFC wants to continue charging fans $54.99 for per PPV, they’re going to have to start putting on more stacked cards like UFC 178 promises to be.
If they do not, expect to see buyrates continue to plummet down and down, blurring the lines of what constitutes a PPV and a free card. The UFC has a future star in Dillashaw, but he can’t carry a PPV on his own yet, and he shouldn’t be asked to.
Several champions are set to return from a year full of injuries, so that fact alone should help bolster cards going into the next year, hopefully making the PPVs more noteworthy on the surface.
