So. Where do we go from here?
Just for fun I took a look back to the time around UFC 100 where the UFC stood 3 to 4 years ago.
UFC 100 featured Brock Lesnar at his peak, GSP, Henderson, Bisping, Mir, Coleman, Bonnar, Fitch, and even a younger Jon Jones on the prelims.
The next few events featured champion BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Forrest just after his title, Big Nog vs Randy, JDS on a tear, CroCop, Franklyn, new Vitor, Machida vs Shogun, Cain on his way up, Dan Hardy pre-GSP, and others
This was also the era where Rampage, Tito, Chuck, Carwin and Wanderlei were all selling tickets.
Fast forward a short 3 years, and ALL of them have retired or otherwise moved on, or have lost a ton of marketability due to losses except for the new-old-newTRT Vitor and Cain, with JDS and mw-Machida needing to build that marketability back. Henderson is clearly on his way down, and Bisping is in limbo. Mir is a fight away from retirement, Shogun could go either way, and expensive imports like Overeem and Barnett have failed to stay on top.
The USA has lost all of their top guys in Brock, Henderson, Chuck, Randy, Rampage, Forrest, Franklyn, Hughes.
Every champion in 2014 will be different than 2012.
According to MMAPayout, the top 10 draws in the UFC in 2012 were:
10: Forrest
9: BJ
8: Dan Henderson
7: Nick Diaz
6: Chael
5: JDS
4: Rashad
3: JJ
2: Anderson
1: GSP
Within the last month, the UFC has lost its top 2 guys. Canada has lost GSP, and the world has lost Anderson. And BJ, Henderson, Nick and Chael are likely going to come off that list as well.
In 2014, who are the top 5-10 guys going to be? Can Jones, Ronda, Cain, and Weidman fill in for the previous generation?
Will the UFC put as much marketing behind Weidman as other current champs? It is likely he will either get eaten alive by Vitor, or within a couple of fights shortly after. Will the UFC push Vitor knowing he is essentially a cheating-the-TRT-system posterboy? Can Hendricks/Robbie draw interest? Will anyone care for anyone under 155lbs including Aldo, or any women aside from Rousey?
This is especially troubling considering Cain, Pettis, and a few others are going to be on the shelf for much of the year.
PPV numbers are undoubtedly going to continue to drop. But due to saturation and worldwide reach (something like 7 events in asia, and 10 in brazil alone), worldwide viewership, I would think, is most likely going to grow.