The hottest star in the company was slayed. The biggest fight in promotion history, scuttled.
Conventional wisdom, at least from mainstream media types last week, was that Conor McGregor and Holly Holm both losing equaled financial disaster for the UFC.
ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell tweeted immediately after the event that UFC 196 had cost the organization "tens of millions of dollars." Sports Illustrated's estimable L. Jon Wertheim penned a short article for the magazine about how the UFC took a big gamble on the card and lost in a huge way.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 6, 2016
Rovell, Wertheim and all the rest saying the sky is falling aren't pulling their premises from nowhere.