Why Does the UFC Keep Such a Big Roster?

[OldBoy91]

They put on over 40 events a year.

Between camps, recovery, lifestyle choices, and just the violent nature of the sport, athletes are rarely able to compete more than 3 times a year.

Add them all together and thats why the UFC has so many fighters under contract.

 

[laleggenda27]

The ESPN deal stipulates a certain number of events a year.

People keep saying things like this to explain the UFC's watered down cards, but the number of UFC events hasn't actually gone up since the ESPN deal in 2019. The UFC significantly increased the number of events in 2014 (46 events) and has hovered between 39-43 every year since then.

The real issue is the UFC's business model. They stack the roster with cheap regional-level fighters so they can keep the overhead costs down. Why fill a card with top 15 fighters making 80/80 when you can just pay a bunch of regional fighters 15/15?

 

[dipstickjimmy]

It's always puzzled me why the UFC keeps such a big roster. (~600?)

Why doesn't the UFC just cut it down to say ~300 and only keep the elite / high potential fighters.

Then the UFC can just make more stacked cards and that profit can get redistributed.

Fans get more exciting cards and fighters can get paid more as there are less mouths to feed.

Smaller roster means fighters are more in demand to fill in cards. Hard to keep the U.F.ight C.heap true to its name is the fighters have even a crumb of power. It doesn't cost them money to keep them on the roster. I used to work in the car business and before they mandated that commissioned sales people have to be paid minimum wage Dealer's used to "Flood the Floor" as we called it. If they sell 100 cars per month they could have 10 sale people sell 10 per month and make a good living. But they would hire 15 or 20 so that not one single "Up" (potential buyer) got missed. They didn't have to pay extra for the added staff. Of course it cost them as a good sales person would leave because their opportunities were watered down. Once they mandated a sales person must be paid min wage for the hours they were required to forced Dealers to keep a fair balance.

The UFC currently isn't in that position of being required to compensate fighters fairly. There is a reason a P.I. has been built in China, Mexico and soon Africa. Desperate poverty breeds desperate fighters and that makes DW and the UFC rich.

 

[Goutfather]

it’s the equivalent of ufc buying up a feeder circuit, with the advantage that they control matchmaking and fewer contractual hangups. i personally don’t like it because it waters down the brand.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

They have to fill up 40-45 cards a year with typically 12-14 fights each on them.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Because the UFC is not omniscient.

I know this is hard for people to understand, but the UFC doesn't actually know in advance who the best fighters are. The only way to find out is to have them fight each other.

How is the UFC supposed to know who the top 30 fighters are that they are supposed to sign?

Should every fighter who loses their first two UFC fights be automatically cut? If that's the case, guys like Rountree, Merab and RDA would have been gone.

Long before the Dana White Contender Series I thought the UFC should have simply had a 2nd tier. PPV's would be the UFC and stacked with top 10 level fighters. In a cycle they fight amongst the top 10. At the end of a cycle (a year) 9 & 10 fight to keep their spot or get relegated to the 2nd tier. Have a 2nd tier of 11-20 or even 30 ranked fighters compete to rise to the top (11 & 12 fight) and they fight 9 & 10 to get into the top 10.

Top tier is the UFC (PPV) and 2nd for weekly fight nights. Probably not as lucrative but it would have made for a better product IMO.

 

[DizzyKronic]

It's always puzzled me why the UFC keeps such a big roster. (~600?)

Why doesn't the UFC just cut it down to say ~300 and only keep the elite / high potential fighters.

Then the UFC can just make more stacked cards and that profit can get redistributed.

Fans get more exciting cards and fighters can get paid more as there are less mouths to feed.

At the time I had hoped they’d trim the roster and keep the WEC for the B league fighters.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Long before the Dana White Contender Series I thought the UFC should have simply had a 2nd tier. PPV's would be the UFC and stacked with top 10 level fighters. In a cycle they fight amongst the top 10. At the end of a cycle (a year) 9 & 10 fight to keep their spot or get relegated to the 2nd tier. Have a 2nd tier of 11-20 or even 30 ranked fighters compete to rise to the top (11 & 12 fight) and they fight 9 & 10 to get into the top 10.

Top tier is the UFC (PPV) and 2nd for weekly fight nights. Probably not as lucrative but it would have made for a better product IMO.

Isn't the UFC largely already in a tiered structure?

A: PPV main events co-mains
B: PPV main card fights and fight night main events.
C: PPV prelims and fight night main cards
D: Fight night prelims

 

[Dandy Chiggins]

If they cut all the bums, the worst of the elite bunch become the new bums as standards go higher and the cycle repeats itself

Exactly this! It's all relative at the end of the day.

 

[Clark Rogers]

 

[CasualBot]

the UFC can just make more stacked cards and that profit can get redistributed.

Brud, what

The multi-billion dollar company could afford 1000 fighters on the roster,
paying them all $1million a year (minimum) without fighting or event revenue...
and it still wouldn't touch even half of Dana's multi-billion bonus.
Let alone the value of the company.

Cutting fighters has absolutely nothing to do with it.

 

[PeterGriffin]

Get a fighter to sign on the dotted line, and instantly they are locked in and can't fight elsewhere. It's like the fighters are indentured contractors and the UFC holds both pieces of the agreement.

They only have to offer the fighter 3 fights a year, and if the fighter refuses an opponent, extend the contract. Make the offer every quarter, pay them as cheap a flat rate as you can and tempt the fighter with crypto bonus incentives to make up for what they don't want to pay them to show/win, throw a mittfull of Venum coupons and a certified UFC hot-dog brander their way, small price to pay for someone's soul.

 

[Nintendo 64]

I watch MMA and Soccer, so I have a lot of time for fights.

Same here. Football is on European times, so there is little overlap.

 

[capnlarge]

Well, if you wanna put on an Apex show every other weekend, there will be some fighters that don't wanna fight there. Another thing is that if you're only paying fighters when they fight, then it doesn't really matter if you're paying 2 fighters one time or one fighter twice

I think the simple answer is that the amount of money they are making for producing so much content vastly exceeds the amount of money they are spending on the talent to fill this time.

 

[Sean_wongster_wongmastter]

UFC wants the cheapest fighters in the world not the best fighters

They pay the most so there goes that theory. Who has better fighters?

 

[ferrisjso]

Disney contract requires them to put out a lot of content.

 

[Coconutwater]

Get a fighter to sign on the dotted line, and instantly they are locked in and can't fight elsewhere. It's like the fighters are indentured contractors and the UFC holds both pieces of the agreement.

They only have to offer the fighter 3 fights a year, and if the fighter refuses an opponent, extend the contract. Make the offer every quarter, pay them as cheap a flat rate as you can and tempt the fighter with crypto bonus incentives to make up for what they don't want to pay them to show/win, throw a mittfull of Venum coupons and a certified UFC hot-dog brander their way, small price to pay for someone's soul.

This.

Buying up talent keeps higher ranked fighters in-line for fear of replacement. Furthermore, it prevents competiton as Bellator, One and PFL must fight over scraps.

 

[FreedomCricket]

It's always puzzled me why the UFC keeps such a big roster. (~600?)

Why doesn't the UFC just cut it down to say ~300 and only keep the elite / high potential fighters.

Then the UFC can just make more stacked cards and that profit can get redistributed.

Fans get more exciting cards and fighters can get paid more as there are less mouths to feed.

You should start your own UFC and only have 300 or so fighters.

What makes you think having 300 fighters would lead to more stacked cards?

I'd like to know the average number of fighters that have at least 1 fight per year in the UFC.

I'd also suspect there's around 75-100 in active/hurt/etc fighters at any one time that are under contract.

According to the google, UFC had 578 contracted fighters in 2021 and had 509 fights (1,018 bodies needed for those fights)

In 2019 UFC signed a 5 year contract with ESPN. In the 3 years prior to 2019, the UFC averaged 475 fights in a year. In 2019, 2021 and 2022 the UFC averaged 512 fights.

Roughly 37 more fights per year, which is about 3 more fight cards per year. In 2022 the UFC had 42 fight cards.

 

[RockyLockridge]

The ESPN deal stipulates a certain number of events a year.

What constitutes an event though? Does every card have to have 11-14 fights? Why not just 8 fights per event?

Same amount of events, reduce roster, reduce amount of fights per event.


What’s the problem?

 

[Ares Black]

What constitutes as an event though? Does every card have to have 11-14 fights? Why not just 8 fights per event?

I'm sure there are minimums. Not sure the details.