Times Are Changing
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Price Hikes, Co-promotion, and Ali Act
First things first. If this edition of the newsletter looks a little different to some of you, it’s because Revue is shutting down. Revue was Twitter’s newsletter writing tool that this thing started on and was easily published there and here on Medium. Oddly enough, I had more non-subscribers on Medium read it than folks subscribing on Revue so their closure is just making the decision to publish here easier.
So, with that out of the way here’s the latest for this week’s letter.
I hope you UFC Stans got money
Yes, you're reading that correctly. The price of UFC pay-per-views is going up again!
That makes this the fourth time the price has gone up since 2019. My understanding is this is a Disney/ESPN decision and not a UFC decision but either way if you keep doing what you’ve been doing you will get what you’ve always gotten. By that I mean, if you only watch the UFC like there isn’t more MMA out there, then, of course, you will be milked for every penny you have.
If you want the new math on being a UFC fan, Shaheen Al-Shatti did it for us. “Four years later: $79.99 PPVs and a $9.99 ESPN+ sub: $1,159.75 per year.”
The sport is big enough now, watch the sport, not the UFC. This brings me to the next part of this letter.
PRIDE NEVER DIE
Scott Coker never gets credit for how deep of a fight fan he is. The co-promotion on New Years' Eve with RIZIN isn’t the first time he’s worked with them, but this will be the first time it happens on SHOWTIME. Both Coker and RIZIN President Nobuyuki Sakakibara spoke to the media this week about what they are doing and hopefully make it more of a regular thing. The card is some of Bellator’s best fighters against some of RIZIN’s best and you can read more about…
