Was 2019 a good year for the UFC?

With 2019 in the books, it is time to look back at the year and ask: Was 2019 a good year for the UFC?

Was 2019 a good year for the UFC?

Frank Hyden MMATorch Columnist

I’d probably say it was a decent year for them. They did the ESPN pay-per-view deal and had some big fights. It would have been a better year if they had started planning for the future more, though. That includes getting behind certain fighters more and maybe not indulge other fighters as much as they have. I’d say 2019 was a “solid” year for them. Not great, not horrible, just kind of there. It felt more like the UFC was treading water this year than anything else.

Michael Hiscoe MMATorch Columnist

2019 will likely go down as a transitional year for UFC. They moved from Fox to ESPN, and while the move has benefited both parties financially, UFC’s overall visibility has diminished significantly. 2019 lacked any real blockbuster fights save for the BMF fight, which fell in to UFC’s lap thanks to Jorge Masvidal’s wild year in the cage and Nate Diaz’s masterful promos following his return in the summer. 2020 looks to be a bounce back year with Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone on tap to kick off the year, and big fights for Jon Jones, Masvidal, and Diaz likely for the remainder of the year.

Robert Vallejos MMATorch Managing Editor

On balance I feel that it was a good year for the UFC, but more appropriately I think this was a stabilizing year for the UFC. Outside of UFC 244, the UFC didn’t have an event that felt like a cultural happening. With that said, they also did not have a pay-per-view that has us really questioning why they were trying to charge money for the show. After the highs of 2015 and 2016 it felt like the bill came due in the last two years. If the UFC has a boom in the near future, I think we can look back at 2019 as the year that the boom with birthed.

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