The business of fighting had a curious year in 2017. On one hand, Conor McGregor earned the biggest payout a mixed martial artist has ever received. On the other, he had to go to boxing to do it. Television ratings and pay-per-views were down, but if UFC president Dana White is to be believed, company profits were up. Fighters saw an increasing mobility to switch organizations, but holdouts at the top seemed to become more common.
Here are the things to watch for in 2018:
The McGregor effect
The biggest star in the sport, McGregor didn’t see the inside of the UFC’s Octagon in 2017.