UFC and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport that is gaining popularity very fast around the world. More recently though, some of its biggest names have been allegedly caught doping such Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar, and Anderson Silva. With some of its popular athletes being caught, does this hurt the growth of UFC and MMA in general as a popular sport? As of right now, it does not appear that way although if this narrative continues for years to come then it will hurt the sport. Take for example UFC 200, its main event was supposed to Jon Jones versus Daniel Cormier. That main event did not happen because Jon Jones was caught using an illegal substance just about a week into the fight. However, UFC did get Anderson Silva to compete against Daniel Cormier. But realistically, if something like this is going to keep happening over and over again, it will be very hard to trust the sport and pay money to watch it as well. Scratching one of your headlining matches after people pay money to watch it on pay-per-view will have fans not wanting to pay to see it because they will not be able to trust that the match they are looking for will happen.
Why has UFC not suffered severely yet? It is still a growing sport and still growing in popular. UFC/MMA has replaced boxing as America's favorite hand to hand combat sport; people are turning away from boxing because it is starting to be less exciting and turn to UFC/MMA. It is the same reason, Americans are infatuated with football. We like the violence that comes with the sport. For now UFC is safe but if nothing changes within the coming years, it may not be.
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