It’s not only fight fans that are frustrated with the UFC’s recent efforts.
The world’s largest MMA promotion isn’t exactly off to a rollicking start in 2026, with its cards being criticized for a lack of star power, meaningful stakes, and flat-out poor matchups. While the business side continues to boom, questions have been raised about whether that success has led to complacency when it comes to putting together quality lineups, especially with the mixed reception to the landmark UFC White House event on June 14.
Veteran coach Ray Longo appeared on the Anik & Florian Podcast, where he plainly stated his review of the UFC’s matchmakers.
“Those fights on the White House card,” Longo said. “You can’t tell me anybody gives a shit. The way we come up with these matchups.”
Longo’s comments came amid a discussion of this past Saturday’s UFC London event, which drew jeers for a lackluster evening of fights, including a pair of much-maligned bouts between Michael Page and Sam Patterson, and Mario Pinto and Felipe Franco.
Having been witness to some of the most exciting fights in UFC history over the course of his illustrious coaching career, Longo remembers a time when almost every UFC show was appointment viewing.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m going to say 10, 12 years I never left my house on Saturday night,” Longo said. “And if we had a wedding for somebody, everybody had their phones out watching the fights. I don’t know if I’m getting older, things are changing, who the hell knows? From my perspective, I don’t know, I go back now and go to look at the fights, I don’t even know which fight I want to look at. I don’t even know who’s fighting. I don’t know a lot of their names.”
“Even this Netflix card with [Gina] Carano and [Ronda] Rousey, it’s got name value,” Longo added. “Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, Carano, Ngannou, whether the fights are going to be good or not, they’re going to draw people into those fights, there’s no question in my mind. Especially now that I think some of these cards have been a little weaker. It’s just not captivating. I think there used to be a couple of people, they did a show ‘Care/Don’t Care’ they’d go over the fights. I haven’t seen it in years, but it was good. Now I’m starting to think of that. I don’t really care about a lot of the fights. That was never the case, never was the case. I was glued from prelims to the last fight even if it ended at 2 in the morning, didn’t matter. Now it’s, ‘I’ll catch them when I catch them,’ unless it’s something really big.”
Jon Anik, one of the hosts of the Anik & Florian Podcast and the UFC’s main play-by-play commentator, agreed that something is missing with the matchmaking these days.
“We’re not talking about the co-main event,” Anik said. “We’re not talking about CLD’s win over Roman Dolidze even though Christian Leroy Duncan maybe deserves a minute or two because it’s not largely compelling.”
“Sometimes there’s ebb and flow,” Anik continued. “I can’t wait to just scream through my f*cking neck at UFC 327 in a few weeks. That’s the thing. I can have an honest conversation like this and tell you that I’m going to put my promotional best foot forward in a couple of weeks and we have a tremendous card and we’re going to blow it out and I can’t wait for that, but yeah, it hasn’t been a great few weeks, to be sure.”
There’s no single explanation for why UFC cards may have declined, though one could point to the UFC having little to risk after signing its $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount, the previous generation of stars aging out and no one taking their place, lackluster pay for entry-level fighters discouraging high-level athletes from pursuing careers in MMA, or simply pure product over-saturation. Others might argue that card quality is mostly unchanged and that the average fighter is actually technically superior to the average fighter 10 years ago, and its fan expectations that are different.
Regardless, Longo is convinced something needs to change or the UFC risks losing fans.
“From a bottom line standpoint, A-plus,” Longo said. “If you’re a hardcore fan or you’re an old timer, the quality definitely went down. But from a business standpoint, they’re doing the right thing, but I think what’s happening now is you’re getting fighters that are pushing back. They’re not taking fights if they’re not getting paid what they think they’re getting paid. Then they just move on to somebody else and that’s why we’re not getting the fights we want to see.”
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