{"id":38130,"date":"2026-05-07T19:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/UFC-brass-dismisses-card-quality-concerns-We-dont-buy-it-201098"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:49:24","slug":"ufc-brass-dismisses-card-quality-concerns-we-dont-buy-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/ufc-brass-dismisses-card-quality-concerns-we-dont-buy-it\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC brass dismisses card quality concerns: \u2018We don\u2019t buy it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

When looking solely at the revenue statements, the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> is bigger and badder than
\never.<\/p>\n

During a TKO-run financial call on Wednesday, TKO Group Holdings
\nPresident Mark Shapiro shrugged off any concerns that fans and
\nmedia have raised lately about the quality of its events. All
\nacross social media, fans have lambasted the UFC\u2019s matchmaking and
\ncard creation decisions this year since the Paramount deal came
\ninto play. The claims of fewer ranked combatants on the billing, a
\nsmaller number of championship pairings and more fights with
\nathletes on long losing streaks have plagued the promotion as of
\nlate.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Prior to UFC 328 on Saturday, the promotion has only run three
\nchampionship bouts this year: Justin
\nGaethje<\/a> vs. Paddy
\nPimblett<\/a>, Alexander
\nVolkanovski<\/a> vs. Diego Lopes<\/a>
\n2 and Carlos
\nUlberg<\/a> vs. Jiri
\nProchazka<\/a>. Four more are on the books through June, with two of
\nthose at UFC 328 and the other two at the UFC White House
\nevent.<\/p>\n

As a recent example of growing concerns from the fanbase, just 10
\nof the 24 athletes at
\nUFC Winnipeg<\/a> in April posted winning records with the
\npromotion, with its headliner a match between a rising Canadian
\nstar and a 39-year-old former title challenger on a four-fight
\nlosing streak. Per Shapiro, the UFC is ignoring all such criticism,
\nwhile declaring that things have never been better for the
\ncompany.<\/p>\n

Making money hand over foot<\/h2>\n

Based on the financial statements, the UFC argues that they not
\nonly remain at the top of the mixed martial arts mountain by a wide
\nmargin, but that the revenue keeps growing year-over-year. Shapiro
\nand the other decisionmakers at the company believe everything is
\nhunky-dory, although viewership numbers of recent events have not
\nbeen revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom line is, we don\u2019t buy it,\u201d stated Shapiro. \u201cLet\u2019s just
\nstart with this premise: the product is great at the UFC, the brand
\nhas never been stronger, our reach has never been greater. So, the
\nfoundational elements of UFC are in concrete. Anyone that came to
\nour last numbered fight in Miami, which was UFC 327, was flat-out
\nblown away. Anyone that went to our last Fight Night, which
\nhappened to be last weekend in Perth, Australia, a sellout, or even
\nto have watched it, witnessed it, an extraordinary sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro continued, \u201cWe are always building at the UFC. We\u2019re in the
\nbuilding phase at all times. We find the best up-and-coming talent
\naround the world, and we match them continually in the best fights.
\nThere\u2019s a huge movement right now with all these young fighters
\ncoming up in the ranks, many of them are taking over slots in the
\ntop 10 from guys who have been names in the rankings for years.
\nStrong personalities that are busting just now, [like] Joshua Van<\/a>,
\nBrazilian Carlos
\nPrates<\/a>, undefeated Michael
\nMorales<\/a>. The next generation. Or look at the White House card,
\nwhich we put out there as a strong card, we\u2019ve actually added a
\n[fight] to it, the UFC \u2018Freedom 250,\u2019 which is stacked
\ntop-to-bottom, and we\u2019re using that opportunity to feature one of
\nour most promising stars in Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Shapiro deigned to admit that the UFC was in a rough
\npatch competitively and in terms of apparent flagging fan interest,
\nhe did let slide that every industry goes through tough spots. In
\nhis comparison, he used basketball stars as a reference to the UFC
\nnot necessarily having household names like Brock
\nLesnar<\/a>, Jon Jones<\/a>,
\nRonda
\nRousey<\/a> and Conor
\nMcGregor<\/a> in the headlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith any sport, there\u2019s just natural ebbs and flows. It\u2019s all very
\ncyclical. Again, harping back to the ESPN days, the NBA was on fire
\nwith Michael
\nJordan<\/a> and he left, and there was a bit of a dip. And then, all
\nof a sudden, it was [Shaquille O\u2019Neal] and Kobe [Bryant], and as
\nlong as Shaq and Kobe were in the NBA finals, the NBA was in good
\nshape. But the year they weren\u2019t there, or they were playing the
\n[New Jersey] Nets or the San Antonio Spurs were there, there was a
\nfall off,\u201d he referenced.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Mark Shapiro is asked about the weaker UFC
\ncards lately and what can be done to improve. pic.twitter.com\/y0Zw3wn3gD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jed I. Goodman \u00a9 (@jedigoodman)
\nMay 6, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When looking solely at the revenue statements, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is bigger and badder than ever. During a TKO-run financial call on Wednesday, TKO Group Holdings President Mark Shapiro shrugged off any concerns that fans and media have raised lately about the quality of its events. All across social media, fans have lambasted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}