The UFC has had a terrible month, ratings-wise, but not all is lost…

From a purely statistical standpoint, December has been a rough month for the UFC to put it lightly. The organization’s tentpole event, UFC 218, failed to find anything resembling an audience, drawing just 230,000 pay-per-view buys and averaging just under 650,000 viewers for its FS1 prelims. Likewise, its return to FOX last weekend for Rafael Dos Anjos vs. Robbie Lawler was met with historically bad response, pulling in 1.78 million viewers for the “the third-worst of any UFC on FOX event and the worst of any of their six annual December events.”

And it hasn’t just been a lean winter for the world’s premier mixed martial arts promotion. While the UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden in November for UFC 217 managed to blow away a lot of expectations — with 895,000 buys, it was good enough to crack the UFC’s top 20 PPV’s of all time — it came following an absolutely abysmal stretch where two of its numbered events failed to pull 250,000 buys combined. With rumors also circulating around the promotion’s struggles to find a new TV partner for its substantially increased asking price, it would be safe to count Dana White (or perhaps, Ari Emanuel) among those of us thankful to be putting 2017 in the rearview.

But lo, there is hope. Though the numbers may be nosediving faster than a drunk dad on an icy driveway, the UFC will actually enter the new year with a couple small victories under its belt. What victories, you say?

Stars on the Rise

Congrats @KobeBryant on a legendary career! #Ko8e24 @Cody_Nolove @Francis_Ngannou pic.twitter.com/MT8dPy03yj

— UFC (@ufc) December 19, 2017

The “inability to make new stars” is one of the more frustrating criticisms that has long been leveled at the UFC, if only because of the black-and-white nature in which it’s typically presented. It’s obvious that the UFC still has a long way to go when it comes to marketing its fighters — an issue many felt would be remedied under its new ownership, which it has not — but let’s not act as if creating the next Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey is a one-way street here. The “Notorious” one didn’t become the international superstar he is today just because he could fight; he became one largely because he had the business savvy and charisma to back it up. There are only a handful of people in any sport who possess those kind of intangibles, so to act as if the UFC should just be able to spin gold out of whatever straw it is given is a pretty narrow-minded view to say the least.

That all said, the organization seems to have found a couple fighters with that star-making je ne sais quoi (or at least, the potential) in Francis Ngannou and Brian Ortega. Between his record-breaking knockout power, soft-spoken but socially conscious demeanor, and backstory ripped from the pages of a Hollywood screenplay, Ngannou is certainly primed to be one of the UFC’s next big names. Just ask Dana White, who couldn’t sing Ngannou’s praises enough following his blistering knockout of Alistair Overeem at UFC 218:

“The guy, first of all, when you look at him, he looks like the heavyweight champion of the world. The guy is a monster. We’ve had some trouble getting him a fight, but once we keep this guy active and you see him doing this to all the big stars that you know and yeah, I think this guy’s going to be a rock star globally.”

The same goes double for featherweight Brian Ortega. Fresh off an incredibly impressive submission of Cub Swanson at UFC Fresno earlier this month, it was actually Ortega’s unusually calm and collected attitude in the lead-up to his first main event that started registering on people’s radar. Or maybe it was his cornrows. In any case, it translated into the best Fight Night ratings the UFC had seen in over two months.

A top notch submission game, and ever-improving striking game, *and* he can sing? Talk about a triple threat. Suffice it to say, Ortega’s future is looking brighter than ever, and the fact that he seems like a genuinely great person only raises his stock all the more.

Developmental…Development

Say what you will about the lack of prestige required for a UFC contract these days, but I for one couldn’t be happier with the promotion’s continual pivot towards developing…erm…developmental leagues within its own brand.

Like any other form of sports entertainment, the UFC’s success lives and dies by its ability to sell us a story. When MMA burst onto the scene in the early 90’s, it was the pure, unhinged brutality that served as the UFC’s major selling point. When the sport began to experience its boon in the mid-2000’s, it was the idea of seeing an entirely new sport dominate the globe. But in the time since, the UFC’s product has become stagnant. As its roster has expanded to nearly 600 fighters, the promotion has often struggled to find a story more compelling than “X fighter wants to be the best, and Y fighter is standing in his way.” The now-infamous Reebok deal may have helped “legitimize” the UFC product, but it also effectively sucked away what little personality its fighters were allowed to display in the process — which, for a sport as individualized as MMA, was inherently conflicting to its best interests.

The rules for UFC 1. I wonder what @Reebok thinks about #3 😄 pic.twitter.com/pfLUVzhFVI

— MMA Then & Now (@MMA_then_now) December 13, 2017

Thankfully, it looks like the UFC has finally started to get the memo that “star-building” begins at the ground level. The last season of TUF may not have deviated from its well-worn formula, but it did serve as an introduction to an exciting, entirely new division (that of women’s flyweight) and the first crop of contenders there within. More recently, Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series mirrored this formula, cut out most of its more reality show tendencies, and debuted to almost unanimous praise. Witnessing a fighter’s journey from the very bottom of the ladder to the title picture is a huge part of what made the early seasons of The Ultimate Fighter so compelling, and not even Dana White would argue that those seasons aren’t responsible for everything the UFC has today. Because while a jaw-dropping knockout may be what gets us in the door, it’s the stories and personalities of the people throwing hands that keeps us coming back.

So yes, while the UFC may be showing some signs of aging, recent efforts have demonstrated its ability to adapt (if ever so slightly) to the needs of an ever-evolving market. And with so little to look back positively on in 2017, I’d say that’s worthy of a celebratory toast if nothing else.

*Yes, the loss of Frankie Edgar from UFC 218’s main event certainly didn’t do it any favors, but history argues that his inclusion would have done little to sway that figure in a much more positive direction.

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Jared Jones is a writer, musician, and filmmaker currently residing in Boston, MA. Angry comments can be directed to his Twitter and/or Facebook pages.