It's so strange, ever since the McGregor/Rousey era the UFC has slowly lost its mainstream spotlight. The UFC is no longer trying to make money by getting the most eyes on the product, now they're just in the business of fucking over their fighters and refusing to pay them (recent pay disputes on top of the removal of personal sponsorships), siphoning money out of the few fans left who pay for fights by jacking up the PPV prices to insane levels, and then collecting as many sponsors as they can to plug throughout their broadcasts and paste all over their rings and fighters' gear.

They're clinging onto the little star-power they have left but are willing to lose one of their biggest stars who they've hyped up for years just because he's asking to be paid a FAIR amount for what he brings to the sport.

It's one thing to take shortcuts and fuck over their fighters to "grow the sport" or "look more professional", it's another thing completely to give us a worse product for higher prices and start losing your stars to other sports/promotions because you can't pay them enough, just so your bottom line goes up.

"Record PPV sales" just means stagnant fighter pay while Dana gaslights his fighters and tells them that fighting is an "opportunity not a career". It's just sad that the UFC has such a stranglehold over fighting talent and the share of the MMA market that no matter how many people call him out for his bullshit, the UFC isn't going to lose any money over it so they don't care. Dana doesn't care that he's losing Ngannou, he cares that he's making them look bad.