May - 2015
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
22
Following a tough year for business in
2014 for the UFC, it appeared as though
they were taking steps to rectify the is-
sues that plagued them.
In the first quarter of 2015 they faced
significant amounts of diversity, but they
were able to keep some very good events
in place through it all. The majority of the
problems in the first quarter of the year
came after the fact. Jon Jones’ failed pre-
fight drug test did them no favors, and
then both Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva
failed their own drug tests. It drew a lot
of negative publicity, and removed Diaz
and Silva from any potential short term
fights that they had planned. Yet, they
were still able to draw good pay-per-view
numbers for the respective events.
Just one month into quarter two, the UFC
is facing some bigger issues already. UFC
186 went from a great Pay-per-view to
a catastrophic failure on paper. Though
the event wasn’t to bad to watch, it
wasn’t event close to what it once was.
The pay-per-view buys are projected to
be very low, and the gate was less than
$700,000. They actually had to close off
sections of the arena to prevent it from
looking too empty.
With UFC 186 in the past it felt like it was
a bump in the road. Something that has
happened in the past, and will inevitably
happen again in the future. Either way,
fans and media where excited for the
next pay-per-view. The buzz was already
starting to snow ball around the event
one month before hand. The main event
was to be Jones fighting Anthony John-
son, with a co-main event of the long
awaited match up between Chris Weid-
man and Vitor Belfort. Unfortunately, for
UFC:
Q2 MID TERM ANALYSIS
Article By: Michael Davis
