UFC revenue is rising and a massive new media deal has put the promotion in front of more fans. But true crossover superstars remain rare. Would better fighter pay help create the next Conor McGregor, or has the UFC built a business where the brand is the biggest star?
The UFC has never been bigger as a business, but that does not mean its fighters have never been bigger. There is an important difference between the strength of the promotion and the drawing power of the athletes who compete inside the Octagon.
UFC generated about $1.5 billion in revenue in 2025, according to parent company TKO Group Holdings. In the second quarter of 2026 alone, UFC revenue reached nearly $536 million. Then came an even bigger sign of the company’s strength. Beginning in 2026, Paramount became the exclusive home of UFC events in the United States under a seven-year media agreement worth an average of $1.1 billion per year. The deal also moved UFC away from its traditional pay-per-view system in the United States, putting numbered events on Paramount+ without an additional pay-per-view charge.
Those are superstar numbers for a sports organization. The harder question is whether the UFC currently has fighters with the same level of star power.
UFC Has Stars. But Does It Have a Megastar?
The UFC is not short on talented or popular fighters. Alex Pereira has developed a major following, Ilia Topuria has become one of the most talked-about fighters in the sport, and several others can sell tickets, draw television audiences and create attention on social media.
There is, however, another level of fame. Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar all reached a point where people who did not regularly watch mixed martial arts knew who they were. McGregor appeared on late-night television, crossed over into boxing against Floyd Mayweather and became one of the most famous athletes in combat sports. Rousey appeared in movies and television shows and became one of the most recognizable female athletes in the world. Lesnar already had fame from professional wrestling, but his move into UFC helped turn heavyweight title fights into major mainstream events.
The UFC still produces stars, but it has been much harder to produce another true crossover superstar. That raises an important question: could fighter pay be part of the reason?
More Money Does Not Create Charisma
Paying fighters more will not automatically create another McGregor. Money cannot make someone funny, give a fighter a dramatic knockout or create a rivalry that captures the public’s attention. Star power still requires the right mix of talent, timing, personality and memorable fights, and some athletes simply connect with fans in a way that others do not.
Better pay, however, could create better conditions for stars to grow.
A developing UFC fighter is not only an athlete. Fighters may need to pay coaches, training partners, managers, nutritionists, medical expenses and the cost of traveling for training camps. A fighter trying to become a public figure may also need help producing videos, building a social media presence, traveling for interviews and developing a personal brand.
Those things cost money. A fighter earning more guaranteed income has more freedom to invest in a career outside the cage. Higher pay would not guarantee stardom, but it could give fighters more of the tools needed to pursue it.
The UFC Brand Comes First
There may be an even bigger issue than pay. The UFC has become extremely good at selling UFC, and that may be one of the greatest achievements in sports marketing.
Fans do not always need to know exactly who is fighting to watch a UFC event. They trust the brand. A fan might see a UFC event advertised for Saturday night and decide to watch simply because it is UFC. That is very different from the traditional boxing model.
For much of boxing history, the fighter was the product. Muhammad Ali was the attraction, Mike Tyson was the attraction, and later Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao became the center of their events. Promoters changed, networks changed and opponents changed, but the star remained the main reason people bought tickets or watched the fight.
The UFC has largely reversed that model. The promotion is the constant while fighters come and go, and that gives UFC tremendous power as a business. If a champion gets injured, another fight can headline. If a popular contender loses, another contender moves up the rankings. If one star retires, the UFC machine keeps moving.
For the company, that is a very strong system. For creating athletes who eventually become bigger than the company itself, it may not be.
The Fighter Pay Debate Isn’t New
Questions about UFC fighter compensation have been around for years. The issue became part of a major antitrust lawsuit involving former UFC fighters who claimed the company used its market power and exclusive contracts to hold down fighter compensation. UFC denied wrongdoing, and the case involving fighters who competed from 2010 through 2017 was eventually settled for $375 million.
The settlement does not prove that higher pay would produce bigger stars, but it does show that fighter compensation has been a serious issue surrounding the UFC for more than a decade.
The promotion has made some changes. In 2026, UFC increased its traditional Fight of the Night and Performance of the Night bonuses to $100,000, while fighters who scored other finishes on the card could also earn additional bonuses.
That is meaningful money, but bonuses are still different from larger guaranteed contracts. Fighters cannot build a long-term business plan around hoping to win Performance of the Night.
The Paramount Deal Changes the Question
The new Paramount era could give UFC a major opportunity. Under the old pay-per-view system, casual fans had to decide whether one card was worth spending additional money to watch. Now UFC’s biggest events are available to Paramount+ subscribers without a separate pay-per-view fee.
That could put fighters in front of people who would never have paid $70 or $80 for a UFC event. More viewers should mean more opportunities to create stars because a great knockout can spread across social media, a strong interview can reach millions of people, and a heated rivalry can bring new fans back for the next event.
The UFC, however, also has to decide what it wants to do with that increased exposure. Does it want to create fighters who become household names, and if it does, how much is it willing to invest in helping them reach that level?
Look at What Happened With McGregor
McGregor is an unusual example because almost everything came together at once. He won fights, scored knockouts, knew how to sell himself, understood promotion and had a country behind him. The UFC recognized what it had and pushed him into increasingly larger fights.
As McGregor’s drawing power grew, so did his earning power. Eventually, his fame became large enough to create opportunities far beyond normal UFC competition, including the blockbuster boxing match with Floyd Mayweather.
McGregor did not become a superstar simply because he was paid well. In many ways, he was paid well because he became a superstar. Once that process started, however, greater financial power allowed McGregor to build an even larger personal brand.
That leads to the more interesting question: what happens if UFC starts investing more heavily in promising stars before they reach the McGregor level?
Fighters Need Time to Become Stars
Modern UFC can move very quickly. A prospect can win three fights and suddenly become a contender, while a contender can lose twice and disappear from the title picture. Fans quickly move on to the next name, which keeps the competition exciting but can also make star building difficult.
Fans need time to get to know athletes. They need stories, rivalries and reasons to care about more than a win-loss record. The NFL does this with quarterbacks, the NBA does it with its biggest players and boxing has done it with champions for generations.
A fighter is unlikely to become a mainstream sports figure if most casual fans only learn the fighter’s name two weeks before a title fight.
Better Pay Could Be Part of the Answer
The solution is probably not as simple as doubling everyone’s paycheck, but higher guaranteed compensation could be part of a larger change. It could allow fighters to build better teams around themselves, spend more time promoting fights and invest in their own brands. Better compensation could also make MMA more attractive to elite young athletes and give established fighters more reason to remain active instead of searching for bigger paydays elsewhere.
UFC would still need to promote those fighters, and the fighters would still need to win. They would still need personality, timing and some luck. Better pay would not manufacture a superstar, but it could improve the conditions needed for one to emerge.
Maybe UFC Doesn’t Need Another Conor
There is also another possibility: maybe UFC does not have a star problem at all. Maybe it has built exactly the system it wants.
A promotion built around one megastar becomes vulnerable when that star loses, retires or leaves. A promotion built around the UFC name can survive almost anything. Champions change, divisions change and fans change, but UFC remains.
The Paramount agreement suggests that major media companies are willing to pay huge money for the UFC brand even without a McGregor-level star on every card. From a business point of view, UFC may not need the next Conor McGregor.
Combat sports, however, have always been driven by larger-than-life personalities. Fans remember Ali and Tyson. They remember Rousey and McGregor. Great fights create fans, great fighters create memories, and superstars create eras.
The UFC has built one of the strongest brands in sports. Its next challenge may be figuring out whether it can make its fighters just as big. With more money flowing into UFC than ever before, it is fair to ask whether more of that money should be used to find out.
