This biggest weekend in combat sports is here.
This Saturday, Noche UFC goes down in San Antonio, headlined by a featherweight fight between Diego Lopes and Jean Silva. It’s a good fight, but a far cry from 2024’s Noche UFC at The Sphere, and with the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford boxing superfight also going down this Saturday, this weekend is lacking buzz. As a result, we got a variety of questions in this week’s Feed, so let’s talk about all sorts of stuff.
“Can Jean Silva jump Lerone Murphy in the title queue (since Movsar Evloev is apparently never fighting for the belt)?”
Absolutely. To steal my own golf analogy, Lerone Murphy is the leader in the clubhouse right now, but Jean Silva is only one stroke back, and he’s on the Par-5 18th hole. One big performance can move him to the top of the standings.
The thing you have to remember about Murphy is that he beat Aaron Pico. Yes, it was an incredibly impressive win, but it also came over a guy who is unranked in the UFC, making his debut. That’s not prohibitive for Murphy to get a title shot — you’ve seen the momentum he garnered off it — but it is a little lacking compared to a highly-touted guy from a very popular camp, beating the most recent title challenger. If Jean Silva does something magical against Diego Lopes on Saturday, people will quickly forget about Murphy.
And that’s really the crux of the matter. Murphy is the frontrunner right now, but the UFC hasn’t announced Alexander Volkanovski vs. Murphy yet for a reason. They’re waiting to see how this shakes out. If Silva wins emphatically, he can jump in front, or at least make it one of those situations where the guy who gets the title fight is the one who can make the date work.
But, of course, Silva has to win impressively this weekend first. And while “Lord” is a healthy betting favorite, Lopes is a hard out for him. Silva is giving up a huge amount of size, and Lopes is extremely durable. We’ll see how it all shakes out, but I’m pumped for Saturday’s main event.
“2026, Jed. Who comes back to the UFC, Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey?”
Chalk this up as a question I didn’t think we’d be talking about in 2025, but here we are. A battle of the immovable object and the unstoppable force.
Earlier this week, Ronda Rousey categorically denied any interest in fighting at the proposed UFC White House card, though she didn’t entirely rule out a possible comeback at some point. Meanwhile, Conor McGregor has been saying he’s returning to MMA for years at this point, but has yet to actually do so. So who comes back first?
I guess the smart money is on McGregor. While Rousey could return for a particularly big payday at some point, I think her future in fighting is over. If Rousey ever comes back to anything, I suspect it would be the WWE.
On the other side of things, trusting Conor McGregor to return is never a safe bet, but when the UFC White House card was first proposed, I did immediately think that it was the sort of thing that would make it happen. McGregor is not just in fighting for the money at this point; he’s in it for the spectacle. And while I don’t believe Jon Jones at all when he says the allure of the White House has him interested, I think a unique, once-in-a-lifetime event like this is exactly what McGregor wants to be associated with. Furthermore, an event of that magnitude needs a similarly spectacular main event, and at this point, the only thing the UFC has to offer that feels big enough for the White House lawn is McGregor.
“The Sphere, UFC White House … where else would you like to see UFC events? UFC NASA? White sands missile range? Carnival Cruise?”
I mean, absolutely sign me up for UFC: The Moon. That would be awesome. Even UFC: International Space Station would be pretty dope.
But on a semi-serious note, the UFC White House card is definitely a little gauche, but still kind of a fun, unique idea, and I would love for the UFC to do more of that. I was deeply, deeply disappointed with Fight Island just being Yas Arena instead of some kumite-inspired event location. And if the UFC would bring me on as a consultant, I’d pitch all sorts of these fun one-off events.
The biggest one, though, and the obvious missed opportunity already, is UFC Africa. Eventually that will happen, I’m sure, but it already should have, and every year they skip it feels like a missed opportunity. Let’s go ahead and get UFC Africa done somewhere, so then we can start focusing on UFC: Antarctica.
Also, for the record, a UFC Cruise feels like the sort of thing the company might end up doing one day. Kinda like when Hooters had an airline.
“Will eliminating PPVs be at least partially responsible for growth of UFC popularity among US viewers?
“(Related question: Is there any evidence that viewership in the US for non-PPV fight cards is greater now than, say, 10 years ago?)”
It’s possible, but I’d say it’s unlikely.
Don’t get me wrong, removing PPVs is a net win for MMA fans. If you are a hardcore MMA fan, you’re now going to spend almost $1000 less a year to watch fights. That’s huge. But as the old saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
The downside to removing PPVs is that there is now almost no incentive for the UFC to try to promote anymore. We already saw this happen with the ESPN deal and the guaranteed money from it, and now they’ve removed the one incentive they had to put on big events. In fact, the incentives are now working the other way. With the UFC having a guaranteed yearly revenue for the next seven years, the only way to increase profit will be to lower overhead, and the easiest way to do that is by removing the middle class of UFC fighters and replacing them with more cheap labor from Contender Series. And while the three letters, U-F-C, are the brand and are what matter most, it’s hard to draw casual interest with a fundamentally weak product. Just ask the XFL.
As for the second part, I don’t know of any evidence, but I would strongly guess the answer is yes, just because access is a little easier. That being said, I doubt it’s a huge difference. The MMA fanbase has, in my opinion, functionally maxed out in America. It will ebb and flow some, but we’ve reached the upper limit on MMA fans in this country, because, simply put, fight sports are not for everyone.
Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer all the good ones! It doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.
