Here are my thoughts:
UFC is going through what WCW (World Championship Wrestling) did in the 90’s.
WCW blew up in 95-96-97-98 those were their prime years in regards to content but their record profits didn’t start rolling in until 98-99-2000.
While they were seeing record numbers in regards of money their content had become shit ..and soon they saw a rapid nose dive and eventual sale.
I believe Zuffa and the Flatas Platter Bro’s saw this coming so they sold and jumped out of the biz.
UFC last year saw profits really produced from years past ...there is a delay.
UFC is dying - we’ve been hearing this for some time but we now may finally be seeing the numbers reflect that.
*The Belt is Everything*
Many things added up to the fall of WCW the final nail on the coffin was when they devalued the belt, it came with the Finger Poke of Doom when WCW had Hogan touch Kevin Nash with his finger and pin him for the World Title, it was a slap in the
Face to fans and the fans did not like it.
UFC has decided consciously to devalue the belt by creating interim title after Interim title - the idea of creating interim titles is short term thinking by the UFC they feel if they create an interim title they can promote it on the main event as a “Title Fight” ...ufc is looking for cheap money and not thinking about building up a story and creating something the fans can invest in.
Finally we are seeing the blowback from UFC’s short term quick money thinking ...they lost their foundation of hardcore fans for the quick buck interim title fight after titile fight ...and now the numbers are starting to reflect that.
In order to build a legit organization they are going to need a real rankings system fighters can look at and climb - create Tournaments fighters can get motivated to participate in..and finally they need to get creative and not bank on the sure thing.