“MMA is in a recession. We know this is cyclical, but if we are all being honest, there are other factors at play here.” The famed MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani, stirred up a storm when he discussed the troubles that Dana White possibly faced with UFC 317. And the British sports promoter, Eddie Hearn, didn’t help either, during his conversation with Helwani and Ade Oladipo. However, the UFC head honcho has now found some support from one of his former fighters, Chael Sonnen.
Needless to say, ‘The Bad Guy’ was pretty upset with Helwani’s words. He took to his YouTube channel and lashed out at the MMA reporter. He said, “Let’s just look at live gate and pay-per-view, which is you have fallen for thinking that that is the MMA business. Let’s just look at that. Because for Ariel to say that it’s in a recession, the exact same Saturday cards, the ESPN cards, the non-pay-per-views, that used to be done with no gates at the Apex, are now drawing, each Saturday, between $1.8M and $2.3M ($4.1M if added).”
Well, the UFC has been selling out non-PPV venues as if they were PPV events. And the latest example that Sonnen could give was UFC Kansas City, where Ian Garry helped in selling out the venue. Sonnen said, “They’re just putting them through distribution in a different format and it’s not pay-per-view. They’re putting pay-per-view stars – Ian Garry, who’s co-main evented, 2 pay-per-views before that did quite well and sold out the arenas.” But there’s more!
UFC Fight Night: Cory Sandhagen vs. Deiveson Figueiredo was just 3 days away when Sonnen filmed the video. And by then, the venue in Iowa was already sold out. This is worth noting because Iowa, according to the former fighter, is an unusual location. And 14K fight fans bought the tickets to the show, which is almost the same number as T-Mobile Arena, where the UFC hosts the majority of their PPV events.
‘The American Gangster’ continued, “MMA is in a recession. That is a ridiculously inaccurate statement. And inaccurate is a nice way of saying it. It sounds dishonest, but that’s a much stronger word. So, I’ll just say inaccurate. What would be the point of telling that story? What would be the point of pretending that MMA is down, when all of the data and all of the numbers that we have?”
MMA: UFC Fight Night-Johnson vs Reis, Apr 15, 2017 Kansas City, MO, USA UFC President Dana White following the Demetrious Johnson not pictured and Wilson Reis not pictured fight during UFC Fight Night at Sprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports, 15.04.2017 21:15:30, 10015017, UFC Fight Night, Wilson Reis, Demetrious Johnson, Sprint Center, MMA PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xRonxChenoyx 10015017
White bought the Ultimate Fighting Championship to make it the most valuable sports promotion, as it stands in 2024, with a value going around $12 billion. However, Hearn wasn’t really convinced. According to him, boxing was far superior to the world of mixed martial arts. Let’s see what he had to say.
Eddie Hearn gets brutally honest about the sad state of Dana White’s UFC
During the conversation with Helwani and Oladipo, the boxing promoter claimed that he couldn’t even name six superstars from the UFC. Quite a strong statement, right? He said, “Boxing’s on fire right now. It’s controlling all the narrative digitally, across social media on a far different level to MMA and UFC right now. MMA is the poor relative [of boxing] but it’s not their fault, really, what’s happening. It’s just a bit tired, isn’t it? It’s really down to the actual product, which is the fights. If you said to me right now, ‘name me six UFC superstars’ I couldn’t do it.”
These thoughts were also backed by many entities. Earlier on 16 April 2025, the CEO of Dominance MMA and the manager for Islam Makhachev, Ali Abdelaziz, shared his views on the falling stance for the UFC through his X account. According to him, there were a bit too many fighters rising around the world. However, there aren’t enough mixed martial arts promotions to give them a chance to compete. Abdelaziz claimed, “Too many fighters and not enough promotions, MMA is going thru a recession right now. It’s not a good time, if you have a contract hold on to it tight.”
Well, whatever people have to say about MMA being in a recession right now didn’t seemingly matter to the UFC head honcho. After all, he has been ensuring that the fighting community gets to watch some exciting fights with his events. But losing more than 30 fighters in the last 4 months has raised some concerns in the fighting realm. And even when Sonnen boasts sold-out arenas, UFC’s broadcasting partner, ESPN, is reportedly not happy with the PPV numbers. Conversely, the UFC is not happy with ESPN’s service failing during high-stakes PPVs, and neither are the fans. Hence, a new deal has yet to materialize between the two entities.
Fans have also been complaining about the lack of quality cards and boring fights put on week after week. Some of them are even ready to accept a decreased number of events if it means better quality cards and PPVs. Plus, some claim the PPV prices don’t justify some of the action they see on fight day. So, yes, MMA may be going through a recession right now, but it’s not a financial one, as Sonnen thought Helwani said.
The UFC simply does not have a Conor McGregor/Ronda Rousey/Brock Lesnar type name to get fans hyped. The closest they came in recent times was with Alex Pereira, who dropped his title to the ‘much less exciting’ Magomed Ankalaev. Ilia Topuria is trying, and Jon Jones is seemingly stalling his return. So, is ‘recession’ not a fair assessment?
Do you agree with ‘The American Gangster’ about MMA’s recession? What are your thoughts on Helwani and Hearn’s claims? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
The post Insider Defends Dana White’s UFC Against Recession Doubts With $4M Reality Check Against Eddie Hearn’s Statement appeared first on EssentiallySports.
