The Post-Pandemic Era (2020-Present)

The COVID-19 disruption

The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented disruption in MMA broadcasting in March 2020. The UFC's first major adaptation — UFC 249, originally scheduled for April 18, 2020 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn — was canceled and eventually relocated to VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on May 9, 2020 (the first major US MMA event during the pandemic).

The bouts continued throughout 2020 in empty arenas with reduced production, daily testing, and isolation protocols. The "Fight Island" period at Yas Island, Abu Dhabi — multiple cards across August and September 2020 — was the most-recognizable broadcasting adaptation of the era.

The Fight Island period

The UFC's partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism produced the Fight Island events at Yas Island. The structure:

• Sealed environment: fighters and crew in a quarantined hotel-and-venue complex.
• No in-person audience: empty-arena production with crowd noise overlay for broadcast.
• High event density: multiple cards per week to clear the matchmaking backlog accumulated during the early-pandemic cancellations.
• Cultural significance: the first major international MMA event hosted during the pandemic.

The Fight Island period was a logistical achievement that the broader sports world recognized — the UFC was one of the few major US sports leagues to maintain a regular event schedule throughout 2020.

The post-Khabib era at lightweight

Khabib Nurmagomedov's October 2020 retirement at UFC 254 — the bout against Justin Gaethje — marked the moment the lightweight division entered the post-Khabib era. The succession produced:

• Charles Oliveira (champion 2021-2022): the post-Khabib title transition.
• Islam Makhachev (champion 2022-present): the direct Dagestani successor.
• Justin Gaethje: the interim title winner and BMF champion who never reached the undisputed title.
• Dustin Poirier: the interim title holder who lost the unification bout to Khabib and later retired.

Profile in Islam Makhachev.

The Saudi Arabia investment wave

The post-2022 period has seen Saudi Arabia emerge as a major sponsor of combat sports. The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) investments have included:

• PFL: minority investment supporting the 2023 Bellator acquisition.
• Boxing: major sponsorship of championship-level boxing events held in Riyadh.
• MMA event hosting: PRIDE-style championship events in Riyadh in 2024.

The Saudi investment has produced a parallel championship-event infrastructure outside the UFC. The Ngannou-Fury and Ngannou-Joshua boxing bouts (both 2023-2024) were Saudi-hosted events.

The TKO Group merger

In September 2023, Endeavor (the UFC's parent) merged the UFC with WWE under a new public company called TKO Group Holdings. The structure included:

• Endeavor as majority shareholder: with continued operational control of the UFC.
• Saudi PIF as minority shareholder: with no operational role but significant financial influence.
• Dana White as UFC president: with continued matchmaking and event-operations authority.
• WWE separately operated: under the TKO Group umbrella but with distinct staff and event calendar.

The TKO Group merger restructured the corporate parent of the UFC without materially changing the operational model. The UFC's broadcast deals, the PPV structure, and the ESPN+ partnership continued largely unchanged.

The ESPN+ broadcast era

The January 2019 ESPN+ broadcast partnership has continued through the post-pandemic era. The 2024-2025 negotiation period for the next broadcast deal — with ESPN+, Amazon, Netflix, and other potential broadcasters all in the bidding — is structurally significant. The post-2025 broadcast deal will determine UFC's distribution model for the next 7-10 years.

The new championship roster

The post-pandemic championship roster has produced multiple new title holders:

• Alex Pereira: UFC middleweight and light heavyweight champion. Profile in Alex Pereira.
• Israel Adesanya: middleweight champion across two reigns. Profile in Israel Adesanya.
• Dricus du Plessis: middleweight champion since January 2024. Profile in Dricus du Plessis.
• Sean O'Malley: bantamweight champion 2023-2024. Profile in Sean O'Malley.
• Merab Dvalishvili: bantamweight champion since September 2024. Profile in Merab Dvalishvili.
• Ilia Topuria: featherweight champion 2024-2025, lightweight champion since 2025. Profile in Ilia Topuria.
• Alexander Volkanovski: recaptured featherweight champion in 2025. Profile in Alexander Volkanovski.

The championship turnover rate in the post-pandemic era has been significantly higher than the pre-2020 stretch, reflecting both the natural generational change and the deeper contender pools across multiple weight classes.

The fighter-pay litigation

The Le v. Zuffa antitrust class-action lawsuit, originally filed in 2014, was settled in March 2024 for $375 million. The case alleged that the UFC had suppressed fighter pay through anti-competitive contracting practices.

The settlement was significant but did not produce structural changes to the UFC's contract model. The ongoing antitrust litigation in related cases — particularly the Johnson v. Zuffa case — continues into the late 2020s and may eventually produce material changes to fighter-pay arrangements.

The Jon Jones retirement and the Aspinall era

Jon Jones's October 2025 retirement (after the UFC 309 Stipe Miocic win) without ever defending the heavyweight title against Tom Aspinall marked the end of a 16-year UFC title-eligibility window. The unrealized Jones-vs-Aspinall bout is one of the most-frustrating "what ifs" in modern UFC matchmaking.

The post-Jones heavyweight era has elevated Tom Aspinall to the undisputed champion. The matchmaking pipeline includes Ciryl Gane, Curtis Blaydes (trilogy), and the next-generation heavyweight prospects.

Profile in Tom Aspinall.

The legacy of the post-pandemic era

The post-pandemic era has been the deepest contender-pool stretch in modern MMA history. The championship turnover, the new-generation cultural figures (Topuria, du Plessis, O'Malley, Pereira), and the structural changes in the broadcast and corporate landscape combine into a period that's reshaped the sport.

The next 5-10 years will determine whether the post-pandemic structural changes (TKO Group merger, Saudi investment, ESPN+ deal renegotiation, fighter-pay litigation) produce material long-term effects on the sport's economics and broadcast model.