How much life cycle is left for UFC's current audience?

If demography is destiny, when will today's MMA fan lose interest?

Rule number one for fight promoters: if there are women at shows, the men will follow along.

Rule number two: if there are not enough women, you’re left with a bunch of anxious, frustrated, wannabe testosterone-obsessed fighting-age males as your audience. That’s not a recipe for a long-term fan. That’s an audience constantly in search of false idols and self-help philosophers.

We’re long past the era of The Just Bleed Guy.

A significant portion of today’s fickle male online MMA fan is aggrieved, longing to find motivation and purpose after the dopamine hit wears off. And, eventually, they get bored.

This is why the marketing tap dance we’re seeing Endeavor utilize with UFC right now is fascinating to watch unfold.

Part of Endeavor’s media strategy — which has been quite successful — is to tap into self-styled male role models and “just asking questions!” pseudo-pontificators. Joe Rogan is the most obvious example.

Democrats in America truly believe that the Barron Trump/Alex Bruesewitz podcast media strategy won President Trump the Bro Vote in 2024. So now we have a bunch of cringeworthy Congresscritters who think they can become social media stars. Even the charismatically-challenged Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy has bought into the strategy, dumping his wife for top Democrat social media strategist Tara McGowan.

It’s now conventional wisdom in American politics that this vaunted male media strategy has a long cultural shelf-life. But a funny thing is happening.

It’s easy to be a rebel when you’re “not in power” because when you do have power, you suddenly look less cool as a bootlicker. And with good-but-declining numbers, you end up with tabloid headlines like this:

ANTI-TRUMP PODCAST NEARLY DOUBLES JOE ROGAN’S DOWNLOADS

I don’t get the appeal of many of these podcasts but, then again, I’m not exactly their target demographic. I’m just trying to create my best work product at The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack for everyone in our audience to enjoy.

One entity that aggressively plays the political and cultural wave for media engagement is UFC. Endeavor has plenty of clients and assets to position its players to target certain audiences. In 2024, UFC went all-in on targeting the male Gen Z Trump-adjacent voter who was angry about COVID lockdowns and frustrated with the political disposition of today’s modern American woman.

That gamble paid off for UFC. This Endeavor sports property is absolutely a political mercenary, and the organization doesn’t even hide it.

Part of UFC becoming a political contractor and cultural mercenary is aligning themselves with self-styled military heroes and life philosophers. Like Jocko Willink.

Which is why Nate Wilcox’s recent article about a major plea deal involving “The King of Coke” got our attention.

The social media story of Jocko Willink is a perfect mix of the power of the internet and psychological constructs — many of which are developed by American government alphabet agencies such as the CIA, DOD, and FBI.

On YouTube, there is a bold mix of retired military personalities and a growing backlash of counter-protesting military vets who are aiming to expose people they deem to be false idols and prophets. If it all sounds a lot like pro-wrestling meets Hollywood and televangelists, that’s because it is.

It’s a scene that UFC has utilized to market a product that generates billions of dollars in revenue. But now the tide is turning, and some recent key developments demonstrate that Endeavor is in need of a course correction if they want to keep UFC’s future vibrantly growing.

One key piece of data, in particular, is very alarming.