Can UFC and ESPN renew their vows or are we headed for divorce court?

ESPN+ screwing up UFC 313 might indicate irreconcilable differences

Looks like 313 wasn’t anybody’s lucky number this past Saturday.

Despite notching an impressive (some might say unbelievable) $10M gate for Saturday’s UFC 313 and Justin Gaethje winning his 14th Fight of the Night bonus, virtually everything that could have gone wrong did, for both TKO/UFC and Disney/ESPN+.

Everybody at fault at UFC 313

On the UFC side, we saw their most beloved champion, Alex Pereira, lose an ugly (if predictable) decision to Magomed Ankalaev, in a fight that won the new champ few new fans and had Jesse on Fire proclaiming the event a disaster (“I was there, the entire fucking arena was booing. I was booing and I never boo fights.”) and The MMA Guru heaping insults and abuse on Ankalaev’s name and expressing shock and fury that clinching against the cage was allowed in the UFC.

Dana goes all-in Tate Bros on Power Slap

We also saw Dana White make the ugly decision to give accused human traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate a big bro-style welcome cage-side at the event and at Power Slap the night before. While Tate may or may not have the support of President Donald Trump, this was a controversial enough move to generate a mountain of press:

Here’s how The Associated Press covered it:

White was seen shaking hands and hugging Tate and his brother, Tristan, on Friday, when the UFC president and CEO could be heard on a viral video saying: “Welcome to the States, boys.”

The New York Times covered the alleged split between pro- and anti-Tate conservative influencers:

Mr. White has built a multibillion-dollar business safe for figures who say outrageous and sometimes odious things. A shrewd cultural figure, he has helped define a new, masculinist American mainstream where major brands, right-wing YouTubers and celebrities mix freely.

But by welcoming the Tate brothers — long seen as the misogynistic outer edge of the so-called manosphere and accused of crimes against women — Mr. White has thrown open the tent to such an extent that even some prominent internet commentators who vigorously support Mr. Trump expressed shock.

“I’m done with @ufc,” John Cardillo, a conservative influencer, wrote on X. “If @danawhite can’t draw a line and disassociate from trash who bragged on video about grooming and raping teen girls, it tells me all I need to know.”

The Misfit Patriot, an X account that supports Mr. Trump, posted a video of Mr. Tate discussing marrying and having sex with 16-year-olds and commented “Hey .@danawhite, this is the guy whose hand you just shook last night.”

Yeah, yeah, I get that we’re in a novel political environment after Trump’s re-election. Things are so upside down that Calfornia Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom invited former Trump advisor Steve Bannon on his podcast for some “friendly sparring” that resulted in the two men “finding common ground.”

Nonetheless, this is not the kind of publicity that Disney CEO Bob Iger has historically welcomed and Andrew Tate is the kind of figure Disney has always kept as far away from its famously family-friendly brand.

Between the decision to profit off of Bryce Mitchell’s incoherent pro-Hitler statements, Sean Strickland’s vile mouth, and Dana White welcoming the Tate Bros, UFC is becoming less and less acceptable to a family-friendly audience.

Is this by design to intentionally drive a wedge with Disney?

The UFC can push the boundaries and debase itself, but ultimately they have to be able to deliver the proverbial drug and if there’s one thing that is costly to UFC it’s ESPN’s failure to do what even the Bulgarians running penny stock Triller can do — livestream a damn show.

The consequences are not only brutal for the Endeavor/Disney marriage, it’s also a brutal sign for the future prospects of ESPN+ now that the Venu jumbo streaming sports package model has died.

It might look like UFC has max leverage now but they won’t if ESPN continues to plummet. The TKO brass is swinging on a trapeze over an abyss, they’ve always made it safely to the next one in the past, but like the Magnificent Seven of NASDAQ, they could fall much farther, much faster than anyone expects.

What does all of this mean for you as a customer?