Six Pitfalls From Mayweather vs. McGregor That Ruined 2017 For The UFC

What will amount to by far the biggest combat sports event of the year has also cast a long and dark shadow over mixed martial arts (MMA) ever since boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor boxed for ten rounds in August.

Now several months removed from that epic showdown, it’s clear now that interest in the UFC’s most recent offerings has been lukewarm at best, and almost nonexistent at worst. Whether due to weak cards or general burnout, the UFC’s cash grab with McGregor vs Mayweather has had serious implications on their product ever since, and that may take months to for UFC owners WME-IMG to fix, if they are ever able to.

We took a look at the six main reasons why this crossover event essentially ruined an entire year of MMA for the UFC.

6. Combat Sports Burnout

The rationale behind Mayweather vs McGregor was that this was the fight fans wanted to see, so this is what we’re giving them. While for casual fans that may be true, the nonstop promotion of the event has led to a kind of burnout that has robbed the rest of 2017 of ratings and viewership.

UFC Fight Night: OSP vs Okami did terrible numbers for a free card, even being beaten by Bellator‘s event that same weekend in terms of viewership. In fact, almost all of UFC’s cards have suffered from lagging PPV sales and ratings with the exception of UFC 214, which will possibly be Jon Jones‘ last gasp as a UFC star.

Casual fans, the coveted demographic that yields a strong influence over WME-IMG’s decision making, spent $100 for Mayweather vs McGregor, and haven’t really spent a dollar towards combat sports since then (perhaps with the exception of Golovkin vs Alvarez in some cases).

Non-hardcore fans are tired of the fight game for the time being, and while that will change, it will take the right card to get them to order a pay-per-view.

5. It Ensured McGregor Wouldn’t Be Defending His Belt This Year

McGregor is still the UFC’s lightweight champion, even if he hasn’t defended it once since winning it at UFC 205 last year.

His foray into boxing all but ensured his absence from the UFC cage for all of 2017 to the point where the UFC was forced to create an interim title between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee at UFC 216.

McGregor never defended the featherweight belt and was eventually forced to vacate it (although in his mind, he is still the two-division champ). That troubling trend has carried over to lightweight, and his boxing bout against Mayweather has just furthered the timeline for his next and first title defense.

Keeping your champion active is an absolute must, but random stints in a different combat sport does not meet that criteria. There is an entire division now waiting in the lurch over McGregor’s absence, which has not helped the UFC in the long run.

4. Lack Of Promotion Elsewhere

Due to its at-time great and at other times cringe-worthy build-up, Mayweather vs. McGregor captured all of the UFC’s promotional efforts this year, leaving other champions in the shadows.

Demetrious Johnson is looking to break the record for title defenses against Ray Borg at UFC 216, but casual fans will likely never know. Other contenders have risen up the ranks in spectacular fashion like Volkan Oezdemir, but have not had the promotional push they deserve.

Blame that on Conor McGregor, whose bout with Mayweather has garnered all the attention since the day it was announced.

That’s a long time of pre-fight and post-fight coverage that has left so much potentially noteworthy UFC talent underpromoted if even promoted at all.

3. The UFC’s Cash Cow Was TKO’d

While McGregor’s performance against Mayweather was admirable and gutsy, he still left the T-Mobile arena with a TKO loss, the first-ever in his combat sports career.

For a fighter whose main asset is his striking, a loss due to strikes is never a good look, and that’s exactly how things played out on that August night in Las Vegas.

How can the UFC possibly promote McGregor as their best striker after coming up short in a bout McGregor guaranteed as a win? Sure, they can say he went 10 rounds with one of the best boxers to ever do it, but a loss is still a loss.

Also, McGregor’s cardio issues were further exposed against Mayweather, which the UFC hype machine will have to circumnavigate upon his eventual Octagon return.

All it did was make McGregor money, but the long-term implications of the weaknesses he displayed will be a tall order for the UFC’s promotional efforts to overcome.

2. Ferguson vs. Lee Interim Belt Loses Shine

What should have been McGregor vs Ferguson turned into Ferguson vs Lee for the interim lightweight title, all due to Mayweather vs McGregor.

The result is a lot of shine being dulled from the gold strap on the line during UFC 216’s main event. And it didn’t have to be that way either. Ferguson’s nine-fight win streak deserved a fight with McGregor, who opted for a Mayweather payday instead.

While Ferguson vs. Lee is a perfectly fine interim title fight, it hangs in McGregor’s shadow as the Irishman continues to count his earnings and celebrate throughout the rest of 2017.

The logjam Mayweather vs McGregor has caused has ruined the 155-pound division for this entire year, while also eclipsing the promotion entirely.

1. Nothing Will Ever Top Mayweather vs. McGregor

Finally, it’s time to ask simply, where can the UFC go from here?

After pulling off the unthinkable in Mayweather vs. McGregor, that kind of high tide is nearly impossible to outdo, leaving behind it a low ebb that has put us in the position of even writing this article in the first place.

Now that this monumental event is behind us, the thought of the UFC being able to outdo Mayweather vs. McGregor is unthinkable.

It will be a long time until they are able to do so, leaving the rest of 2017 as filler until the next massive combat sports event takes place.

So unless you’re a diehard MMA fan, don’t expect another event like Mayweather vs. McGregor for quite some time. For casual fans, it’s been the rest of 2017 doesn’t even exist, and that just isn’t anything close to a positive sign for the UFC moving forward.

Will they be able to overcome the drought “The Money Fight” created after one explosive cash grab?