Opinion: The UFC's Roster Monster and the Axe's Inadequacy
Editor's note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.
Between 500 and 600 fighters are on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster. In fact, some folks more meticulous than myself peg it right around the median 550. How many UFC fighters do you think you could correctly ID from their promotional mugshot? How many do you think UFC President Dana White could ID?
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You ask MMA fans to name their biggest beef with the UFC and you’re liable to get a variety of answers, but in my personal experience in these conversations, “Too many cards!” is the most likely refrain, trumping even concerns over widespread PED use. Maybe this is because with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency beginning its full-court-press testing tactics in 2016, people have hope for a cleaner sport. Perhaps it is because many folks don’t care about fighters cheating.
I think both ideas factor in, but I think the chief culprit is that
as we soldier on through the UFC-Fox era, fans now understand that
the UFC’s swollen schedule is largely intractable. People
understand that the UFC still needs major, marquee fights on
pay-per-view 10-12 times per year, that it owes broadcasting to Fox
and Fox Sports 1 and that there is now a concerted push to put
legitimate stars on UFC Fight Pass.
In 2015, Zuffa fell short of UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta’s previous goal of “over 50 events” and yet fans still felt overwhelmed by 41 cards. The UFC is not stupid; the company knows full well that it’s offering too much product, but a certain of amount of programming is owed via the Fox deal and a certain amount of programming is required for the promotion to make serious revenue. The company is stuck on this accord, and people know it. That breeds tension.
Crucially, more events mean more fighters on roster and more fights per card. More fights per card mean more chance of injury mandating replacement fighters being signed. They then play out their own contracts, perhaps even being injured in the process. This is the viral growth of the roster, and like any virus, it’s destructive. After all, it’s not just that UFC cards are so numerous that takes its toll on the fighters, fans and media alike; it’s that these cards are now so loooooong.
Which brings us back to Sunday and the UFC bantamweight title.
Make no mistake about it, the UFC Fight Night “Dillashaw vs. Cruz” card is a fine one, and it is punctuated by the richest, highest-stakes bantamweight fight in MMA history. By no means is it an outrage that the biggest fight 135 pounds has ever had to offer ends up on sports cable. In fact, it’s a suitable platform, with FS1 desperate for ratings and Cruz-Dillashaw not being a fight that resonates far beyond the MMA bubble. Still, the fact that Cruz-Dillashaw isn’t a co-feature on a major PPV offering is a reminder of Zuffa serving multiple broadcasting masters and a reminder of where all this bloat came from.
Further down the card, however, is where you see the nasty action in the petri dish. Not only is the Cruz-Dillashaw card a hellacious 13 fights in total, but the undercard has been ravaged with untimely injuries, prompting the signing of several late-replacement fighters to fill an already overstuffed card; this is two modern UFC evils combining into an even more nefarious, powerful force.
In 2015, with 473 fights over 41 cards, the UFC staged about 11.5 fights per card, long removed from the sweet spot of nine to 10 fights in 2007-08; and that duration annoyed most folks. As mentioned, this card is 13 fights, a by-product of now owing so many fights to so many fighters -- the same forces that led to the UFC adding the Rose Namajunas-Paige VanZant card to its December lineup to avoid breaching several athletes’ contracts. With a competitive title fight headliner, this card has a legitimate chance to run well over seven hours, which is damn near untenable for people covering the sport professionally, meaning it’s certainly not an odyssey that the average or even deeply immersed MMA fan is going to want to embark on, either.
Indulge me and walk down the path of logistical insanity that leads us to Boston. Light heavyweight is a stagnant division, so in comes unproven newcomer Abdul-Kerim Edilov, who then suffers a knee injury before his fight with Francimar Barroso, leading to the signing of Elvis Mutapcic -- an above-average World Series of Fighting vet and not much more. Maximo Blanco and Dennis Bermudez were set for a high-octane featherweight fight, until Bermudez developed a staph infection on his shin, leading to bantamweight prospect Luke Sanders stepping up to 145 pounds for his UFC debut.
Another bantamweight prospect, Rob Font, was scheduled to make his UFC return against Patrick Williams, who then got injured, prompting unbeaten Joey Gomez to sub in on short notice for him. A lightweight fight between Beneil Dariush and Mairbek Taisumov got fully morphed into a bout between late replacement Chris Wade, who was actually under UFC employ already, and late, late replacement Mehdi Baghdad, who was not.
Most perverse of all, Jim Hettes’ injury prior to his featherweight contest with Charles Rosa led to two newcomers being signed to replace him. Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace “Tanquinho” Augusto Mendes agreed to replace Hettes on just over a week’s notice before getting hurt himself, giving way to 6-0 Boston local Kyle Bochiniak.
UFC matchmakers Sean Shelby and Joe Silva try to sign fighters in proportional accordance with the amount of cards the promotion has, but this is where the exponential bloat of injury replacements comes into play. As the roster takes on a life of its own, the only response can be mass cuts, such as the 22 fighters purged in October. However, the Dillashaw-Cruz card is responsible for six new deals due to injury replacement; and with Alex Morono debuting at UFC 195 on late notice, that’s seven new contracts the UFC has taken on in the span of two events, two weeks into 2016.
It’s the most perverse of cycles. Every new contract means more fights owed, and more fights owed to the roster means cards must be longer, with more fights. The more athletes you put on a card, the more are likely to get injured, especially with this being MMA and all. It’d be Draconian and bad for business to start slashing roster fighters and late-blooming prospects over single losses, as good matchmaking can often breed parity. All of this to say that Shelby and Silva still need some sort of substantive cause to be cutting fighters, even if they’re being more liberal with the axe and the diluted competition level makes it easier for roster fighters to win one, lose one, win one and stay employed indefinitely.
That’s just it: The UFC has inadvertently created the perfect breeding ground for this kind of bacterial growth. The card in Boston is just a vivid reminder that we’re long past a stage of small-cell festering; this thing is a full-out monster now, and it’s inherently protected by the UFC’s business structure. The roster monster has mutated into a vicious beast and not one that can be easily defeated by the time-tested pink slip and the age-old axe.
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