As reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, thereis a lot of talk that UFC television negotiations are not going well. UFC hoped to have a deal locked up by the end of December but that hasn’t happened and there are no signs pointing to a deal being done anytime soon. Dave Meltzer noted that FOX made an offer to UFC but now it looks like FOX is more interested in WWE because they can get WWE for similar money and WWE delivers higher ratings. UFC had hoped to get a deal locked in by December but nothing has been signed and there is nothing indicating that a deal is close to being done.
If you are wondering why WWE made such a big push to get Ronda Rousey, all you need to do is look at the TV negotiations. Her signing is helping WWE get mainstream coverage from places that don’t usually cover them and they can sell themselves to a network like FOX with the idea being that they would get Rousey on their network every week. Just a couple of years ago, we would have never dreamed that FOX would want to put Raw on their network and now it seems much more likely and WWE would get a rights increase from what they are getting now with the USA Network.
Again, if WWE moves to FOX then it likely means that the show would be cut down to 2 hours since FOX local affiliates air local programming at 10 pm. SmackDown Live would probably move to FS 1. A move to the FOX Network would likely mean a viewership increase for Raw. In theory, that should help them with other aspects of their business (ticket sales, merchandise, WWE Network, etc).