{"id":406377,"date":"2026-01-13T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406377\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:00:13","slug":"ufc-wants-more-violent-fights-in-2026-boring-may-cost-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406377\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC wants more violent fights in 2026 \u2014 boring may cost jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are just 12 days left until the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) officially ushers in a new era with its Paramount+ debut<\/a> at UFC 324<\/a>, headlined by Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

With a new broadcast partner and a potentially massive influx of casual viewers, one thing is clear: the UFC cannot afford boring fights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While much of this remains speculation, there has been growing chatter that the UFC is cracking down on fighters who consistently fail to deliver excitement. The promotion recently cut undefeated contender<\/a> Rinat Fakhretdinov \u2014 despite him coming off a 54-second knockout \u2014 largely due to a reputation for dull performances. Even reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev has publicly encouraged fighters (particularly Russian ones) to be more entertaining and to improve their English<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, UFC broadcaster Laura Sanko is echoing that sentiment \u2014 and hinting that fans should brace for more violence in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the trend is going to continue to be violence,\u201d Sanko said. \u201cThere is so much talk now around rewarding violent fighters, rewarding finishes, and fighters striving for finishes. There\u2019s a feeling in the atmosphere that with this new broadcast partner, we need to show these people what fighting really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the paywall gone, Sanko believes the UFC will lean heavily into what made the sport explode in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have a new audience,\u201d she added. \u201cWhat electrified people early on was the storylines mixed with what these fighters actually go out there and do. The fighters who emerge as stars will be the ones delivering those incredible finishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

This wouldn\u2019t be a new philosophy.<\/p>\n

With the move to Paramount+, the UFC will be under a brighter spotlight than ever. And the last thing the promotion wants is a new audience tuning in to watch five rounds of lay-and-pray instead of chaos and carnage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are just 12 days left until the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) officially ushers in a new era…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,139445,702,3194],"class_list":["post-406377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-news","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}