TKO Group Holdings President and COO Mark Shapiro has firmly pushed back against the growing narrative that the UFC’s card quality has declined, arguing that the criticism misunderstands how professional sports actually work and ignores the genuine strength of the current product.
Speaking on a TKO financial call on Wednesday, Shapiro rejected the premise that there is a problem to solve in the first place.
“Bottom line is we don’t buy it. Let’s just start with this premise: The product is great at the UFC. The brand has never been stronger. Our reach has never been greater. So the foundational elements of UFC are in concrete. Anyone that came to our last numbered fight in Miami, which was UFC 327, was flat-out blown away. Or anyone that went to our last Fight Night, which happened to be last week in Perth, Australia. A sellout or even watched it, witnessed an extraordinary sport. We are always building in the UFC. We’re in the building phase at all times. We find the best up-and-coming talent around the world and we match them continually in the best fights.”
He pointed to a wave of emerging talent as evidence that the promotional pipeline is healthy and producing the kind of stars that sustain long-term growth.
“There’s a huge movement right now with all these young fighters coming up in the ranks. Many of them are taking over slots in the top 10 from guys that have been names in the rankings for years. Strong personalities that are busting right now. Joshua Van, Brazilian Carlos Prates, undefeated Michael Morales, the next generation. Or look at the White House card, which we put out there is a strong card, we’ve actually added a fight to it. UFC Freedom 250, which is stacked top to bottom and we’re using that opportunity to feature one of our most promising stars in Ilia Topuria.”
Shapiro expressed full confidence in Dana White and his matchmaking team, describing the process of finding and building stars as one the UFC does better than anyone in sport.
“Dana White and his team have been doing this for 25 years. Look, the real truth of it is, we don’t get to determine who wins. It doesn’t work like that. You take these great personalities, who hail from every corner of the world, with exciting fighting styles and if they win, you’ve caught lightning in a bottle. That’s what we do. That’s what Dana White does. There’s no better matchmakers in any sport than we have with Dana’s team of Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard.”
On the broader question of whether the UFC is missing the kind of transcendent stars it had during the Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey era, Shapiro drew a comparison to the NBA’s experience after Michael Jordan retired and framed the current moment as a natural phase that every major sport moves through.
“I would remind you finally with any sport, there’s just natural ebbs and flows. It’s all very cyclical. Again kind of harking back to the ESPN days, the NBA was on fire with Michael Jordan and then he left and there was a bit of a dip. Then all of a sudden it was Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and as long as Shaq and Kobe were in the NBA Finals, the NBA was in good shape. But the year they weren’t there or they were playing the Nets or the San Antonio Spurs were there, there was a falloff. They needed more stars and everybody talked about it and yearned and cried and commented. There was no social back then but there was still a lot of noise. Now, they’re uber rich when it comes to sports personalities and teams that are playing well, as evidenced by the homegrown New York Knicks here.”