The UFC's Biggest Stars Keep Leaving and Nobody Seems to Care

Three weeks from now, on May 16, Ronda Rousey fights Gina Carano on Netflix. Francis Ngannou fights Philipe Lins on the same card. Nate Diaz fights Mike Perry. Junior dos Santos is on it. Muhammad Mokaev is on it. The card is being promoted by Jake Paul's MVP and it's streaming live to 300 million Netflix subscribers worldwide.

None of these people fight for the UFC anymore. Every single one of them left.

And on that same weekend, the UFC will be running a Fight Night card at the Apex in Las Vegas in front of maybe 1,500 people.

Something is happening in this sport right now and I think it's bigger than people realize.

Ngannou Just Said What Everyone Else Is Thinking

Francis Ngannou did an interview with Brett Okamoto at ESPN this week that should've been the biggest story in MMA. Instead it got buried under fight week previews and White House card speculation because that's how the news cycle works. But what he said is worth slowing down for.

Ngannou told Okamoto that UFC fighters who complain about their contracts but refuse to leave are basically doing it to themselves. His exact words were "they don't have the balls to stand on their own and claim that freedom." He said fighters are "so scared of being free, being without a promotion, without a promoter" that they sign bad deals just to stay in the system.

And then he dropped the number that makes the whole argument hit different. Francis Ngannou has made over $30 million since walking away from the UFC in January 2023.

Thirty million dollars.

The former UFC heavyweight champion who Dana White said was making a mistake by leaving. The guy half the MMA media said was throwing his career away. The fighter who people said would disappear into irrelevance without the UFC machine behind him. That guy just told the world he's made $30 million in three years as a free agent and he did it while boxing Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, signing with the PFL, and now headlining Netflix's first ever live MMA event.

I'm not sitting here pretending every fighter can do what Ngannou did. He said it himself in the same interview. Free agency is scary. You don't know when your next fight is coming. You might go a year without competing. You're out there alone. It takes a specific kind of person to walk away from the biggest promotion in the sport with nothing guaranteed on the other side.

But Ngannou's point isn't that every fighter should leave the UFC. His point is that the UFC has convinced its roster that leaving is impossible when it clearly isn't. The proof is the card he's fighting on in three weeks. Rousey, Diaz, Perry, JDS, Mokaev. All of them found somewhere else to go. All of them are getting paid. And all of them are doing it on a platform that reaches more people than the UFC has ever reached in a single night.

Darren Till Says Dana "Totally Switched Off"

Two days before Ngannou's interview dropped, Darren Till said something that connects to it perfectly.

Till told Sherdog that Dana White has "totally switched off from the UFC." Not stepped back. Not delegated. Switched off. Till said the UFC's recent state of affairs has been disappointing and that the boss is clearly more interested in his other ventures like Zuffa Boxing and Power Slap than running the promotion that made him famous.

Now look, Darren Till has a complicated relationship with the UFC. He was a massive star in the UK. The Liverpool walk at UFC Fight Night 130 is one of the most iconic entrances in UFC history. He fought for the welterweight title against Tyron Woodley. And then the losses piled up and he eventually left the promotion. So there's a "bitter ex" reading of this if you want to go there.

But Till isn't the only one saying it. Dana himself basically confirmed the same thing when he went on SPEED with Harvick and said he's "completely removed" himself from negotiating fighter contracts because it isn't fun anymore. Rousey said Dana "lost the reins" and the people who replaced him have made the UFC the worst place to make money in combat sports. The middleweight champion is signing wrestling deals on the side because his biggest money comes from outside the octagon.

When the former champ, the current champ, a former title challenger, and the CEO himself are all saying some version of "the UFC isn't what it used to be," that's not one person being salty. That's a pattern.

The Netflix Card Is the Real Story

Here's what I keep coming back to. On May 16, Netflix is streaming a live MMA event to 300 million subscribers globally. The card has Ronda Rousey, Francis Ngannou, Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, Junior dos Santos, and Muhammad Mokaev. It's promoted by Jake Paul's MVP. Nate Diaz called it "a card full of free fighters" at the New York press conference and Ngannou backed that framing completely.

Five years ago, every single one of those names would've been fighting in the UFC. Rousey was the UFC's biggest female star ever. Ngannou was the heavyweight champion. Diaz was one of the most popular fighters on the roster. Perry was a fan favorite. JDS is a former UFC heavyweight champion. Mokaev was supposed to be the future of the flyweight division.

All gone. All fighting somewhere else. All on the same card. On a streaming platform that dwarfs Paramount+ in subscriber count.

And the UFC's response has been... nothing? Dana hasn't addressed the Netflix card publicly. The promotion hasn't counterprogrammed it with anything significant. They're just letting it happen like it doesn't matter.

Maybe it doesn't matter to the UFC's bottom line right now. The Paramount deal is worth $7.7 billion over seven years. The White House card in June is going to break records. The promotion is making more money than it ever has. But money isn't the only metric that matters in a sport where the talent IS the product.

The Question Nobody Wants to Ask

Here's what I've been sitting with all week and I don't have a clean answer for it.

If Francis Ngannou can leave the UFC and make $30 million in three years, what happens when the next Ngannou figures that out? What happens when a current champion in their prime looks at that number and looks at their UFC contract and decides the math doesn't add up?

Chimaev is already halfway there. He's signing RAF deals while holding a UFC belt. He's publicly saying his biggest money comes from outside the octagon. He's still in the UFC but he's clearly building an exit strategy whether he knows it or not.

And the UFC's answer to all of this has been to raise bonuses from $50K to $100K, pay their CEO $67 million, and let Dana White focus on boxing and Power Slap while Hunter Campbell runs the fighter side of the business.

I'm not predicting the UFC is going to collapse. That would be insane. The promotion is a machine and it's going to keep printing money for a long time. But the idea that the UFC is the only place for elite MMA fighters to compete and make real money? That's done. Ngannou killed it. The Netflix card is the funeral. And every fighter on the UFC roster who's watching from the outside is doing the math in their head right now.

Ngannou said the opportunity is there for anyone willing to take it. Till said the boss has switched off. And in three weeks, a card full of former UFC fighters is going to stream to more people in one night than most UFC events reach in a month.

The UFC is still the biggest promotion in MMA. Nobody is arguing that. But for the first time in a long time, "biggest" and "only" aren't the same word anymore.

Thanks for riding with CageLore. Stay locked in!

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Francis Ngannou say about UFC fighters and free agency?

In an interview with ESPN's Brett Okamoto, Ngannou said UFC fighters who are unhappy with their contracts but refuse to leave "don't have the balls to stand on their own and claim that freedom." He said many fighters are too scared to be without a promotion and sign bad deals just to stay in the system.

How much has Ngannou made since leaving the UFC?

Ngannou has reportedly made over $30 million since departing the UFC in January 2023. That includes earnings from boxing bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, his PFL contract, and his upcoming fight on the Netflix MVP card.

What did Darren Till say about Dana White?

Till told Sherdog that Dana White has "totally switched off from the UFC" and is more focused on ventures like Zuffa Boxing and Power Slap. Till expressed disappointment with the promotion's recent direction.

What is the Netflix MVP MMA card on May 16?

MVP (Most Valuable Promotions), owned by Jake Paul, is hosting the first live MMA event on Netflix on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The card features Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano as the main event, plus Francis Ngannou vs Philipe Lins, Nate Diaz vs Mike Perry, and bouts featuring Junior dos Santos and Muhammad Mokaev.

Is the UFC losing fighters to other promotions?

Several high profile fighters have left the UFC in recent years including Ngannou, Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, and Junior dos Santos. Others like Ronda Rousey chose to return to competition outside the UFC. Current UFC fighters like Khamzat Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan have signed with RAF wrestling to supplement their income while still on the UFC roster.