Professional sports are largely star-driven enterprises. Single athletes, whether in team or individual sports, can make millions of dollars difference to the resulting bottom line.
"We've always known as you try to grow any business, any sport, that having strong, recognisable and exciting athletes is a fundamental," explains Tom Wright, UFC director of operations for Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The UFC's record 2015 year was spearheaded by a pair of those stars " Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. Rousey headlined the UFC's largest live show, drawing more than 50,000 fans to her fight in Melbourne, last November. McGregor, on the other hand, was the primary attraction on two of the UFC's most successful pay-per-view outings, generating more than a million pay-per-view sales each time he fought in the United States alone, at a cost of US$60.
"Twenty-one years the company has been around and 2015 was its biggest year. Who was 2015? That was everything to do with me," a boisterous McGregor told the Weekend Herald.
The brash Irishman has cemented himself as the promotion's most popular male star and top drawing athlete, barely two years into his UFC career. Blessed with a silver tongue and precision punching, McGregor ran roughshod through the promotion's featherweight division and captured his first world title to close out 2015 - ending the decade long undefeated streak of former champion Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds.