White: It’s not my job to make everyone on earth watch every fight

In boxing, heavyweight was traditionally the most popular division. That changed with mixed martial arts, where 170-205 has generally sold the most pay per view cards. MMA originally had no weight divisions, and as each new division down has been introduced, it has taken a while for fans to come around.

At the same time, there has been a massive increase in the number of shows, leading the hardcore fanbase to argue early and often that cards are now watered down. Even a glance at the record show the remarkable growth after ZUFFA acquired the UFC:

1993: 1

1994: 3

1995: 4

1996: 5

1997: 5

1998: 3

1999: 6

2000: 6

ZUFFA acquires the UFC in Jan of 2001

2001: 5

2002: 7

2003: 5

2004: 5

The Ultimate Fighter debuts on January 17, 2005

2005: 10

2006: 18

2007: 19

2008: 20

2009: 20

2010: 24

2011: 27

2012: 32

2013: 33

This year there will be around 50 fights

UFC 174, headlined by 125 pound champion Demetrious Johnson, reportedly did 125k buys on the high end; lower estimates were under 100k. The hardcore fanbase cited the buys as exhibit A in the case for deeper, more compelling cards. However, UFC president Dana White is unmoved.

So it’s my job to make everybody in the whole f—ing world watch a fight? asked White, as transcribed by 5thRound. It’s an impossible job … Demetrious Johnson is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Like Joe Rogan says, he’s the fastest fighter in the sport, and a lot of other great attributes. You’re either a fight fan and you want to watch this guy fight, or you don’t. There’s a certain amount of people that do, there’s a certain amount of people that don’t. We’re doing 50 fights a year.

It did well, for a division they say that sucks..

Demetrious will headline another pay-per-view, he’s the champion. He could fight on FOX, too. Cain Velasquez fought on FOX. Anybody could fight on FOX. Anybody could fight on pay-per-view.

Demetrious Johnson is not a problem. I know it’s fun to talk about. It’s fun to try to say, ‘Demetrious doesn’t sell.’ Demetrious does sell. There’s a group of people that want to watch Demetrious fight, and they bought that pay-per-view. There’s a group of people that don’t want to watch him fight. Then you don’t watch him fight. We have a lot of fights. You can handpick which ones you want to watch and which ones you don’t want to watch.”

With approximately 50 cards per year and growing, spread across various means of transmission, the days when fans waited for months with unbroken anticipation for a card are over.