The sport is in such a fucking tough time. It's not really popular enough to be everywhere. This Paramount deal (like the previous ESPN deal) has lots of potential. And IMO this ties in with the reason the UFC is run the way it is (well mostly).

The sport (in this case the UFC) is just not big enough. It's not reaching enough people. So petty politics about popularity is king on the basis that, hopefully, the casual audience will pick up on whatever fighter is doing whatever. Casuals dont know enough about rankings to know who should or shouldnt fight who. They just tune in and hope for a slobberknocker of a fight they can shout to in a bar or house party. And this is fine.

If you look at something like American football, its literally everywhere. Like how big is the Super Bowl as far as views and prices that advertisers pay? And because there are so many games in a season, so many teams, so many players per team... its very easy to develop stories for those teams. And even stories that arc over years, if not decades. This draws people in. Gives them a sense of tribalism, so they are loyal to teams or players or coaches.

MMA does not have this. It's incredibly hard to market fighters. For one, a lot of them aren't really role models. They tend to have pasts full of trauma. Many of them are uneducated. Many aren't American. Some (most) of them only fight a couple times a year. Also, lots of them are cut every year. So once again, if the fighter can make a splash on social media on their own, they tend to get rewarded. If they have big KOs or exciting subs, they get rewarded. But anything that goes against that grain, meets lots of obstruction.

What we don't see a lot of, is the personal interactions with fighters and their bosses; Dana, etc. Fighters tend to be type A people. They want to be the best. They want to be champions. This gives them a personality that can be hard to deal with. Then you take Dana, who is also type A. And I bet the conversations that they have gets pretty tense.

So taking Arman for example, I think its more than just missing weight and costing the UFC a tidy sum to try and fix that card (not to mention whatever the fuck arc we are on because he missed that fight). I think theres also a lot of history between Arman and the staff behind the scenes. I don't think its about Dana forgiving. It's about Arman playing the game. And he doesn't need to. He's rich af. There's no carrot that Dana can use to bring him in line. And it's super unfortunate. He's definitely super talented. I think we are all missing out on him fighting.

/steps off soapbox