Alexander Hernandez takes issue with UFC’s ‘lackluster effort’ promoting events

UFC President Dana White has his hands in just about everything related to combat sports, whether it is his newest venture, Zuffa Boxing, Powerslap, or UFC BJJ, the promotion’s newly founded submission grappling league. But according to UFC lightweight Alexander Hernandez, all of White’s ventures may be coming at the cost of the fighters in the UFC.

Hernandez is coming off of a knockout victory over Diego Ferreira at last weekend’s Noche UFC event, the third annual event designed to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. And in comparison to last year’s Noche UFC event, this year’s edition fell somewhat flat in both production value and promotion of the event.

Last year’s Noche event was held at The Sphere in Las Vegas, where the promotion spent $20 million on cinematic-themed backdrops related to Mexican Independence Day that gave the event an incredibly unique feel.

This year’s event didn’t feature all that many elements that made it any different from any other UFC event, aside from having five fighters from Mexico on the fight card. Additionally, Saturday’s Noche UFC event was held on the same day as Zuffa Boxing’s inaugural event headlined by the Terence Crawford-Canelo Álvarez fight, which certainly doesn’t help draw eyes to the UFC.

Hernandez didn’t feel as if the UFC did all that much to market the event, speaking to the lack of promotion of fighters from the UFC for not just the Noche UFC event, but for all recent events, during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show on Tuesday.

“One talking point last week was that all the UFC brass, they were heavily promoting the Canelo-Crawford card, and MMA fans were feeling like Noche UFC didn’t get the attention it deserved. Did you feel that? Do you care about that sort of thing?” asked Ariel Helwani.

“Nah dude, I’m just a guy in his underwear trying to do his best to collect checks,” joked Hernandez. “Yeah, I’m not really paying attention to it. If we were going to pay attention to it, I wouldn’t say it’s just Noche. I would just say in general, it has been kind of a lackluster effort. And I don’t know if it’s because there’s so many promotions happening at once within the UFC. You know, with the Boxing, Jiu-Jitsu, Power Slap and everything else, that it’s almost just the brand just stands on itself. Or, if there’s this idea after McGregor, that it was like, ‘We can never have a star become bigger than the company.’

“It feels like no contending or premiere fight or event is really getting pushed too hard. You know, like DDP-Khamzat title (fight), or (Ilia) Topuria’s title (fight), or any of it. Doesn’t really feel like it is being wildly promoted. But I don’t know, maybe when you look at the numbers it is selling all the same. So maybe they just don’t even need to worry about it. Again, I don’t know if they don’t want a fighter to be bigger than the brand, or if the brand can just stand on its own. But we certainly don’t get those sick promos we used to get back in like 2015, that’s for sure.”

Alexander Hernandez on how the UFC is promoting lately: In general it’s been kind of a lackluster effort and I don’t know if it’s just because there’s so many promotions happening at once within the UFC. You know, with the boxing, Jiu-Jitsu, Power Slap and everything else, that… pic.twitter.com/zju8MO6e86

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 16, 2025

Hernandez certainly raised a question that is worth asking. Is Dana White potentially hurting the UFC with all of the ventures he is involved in outside of the MMA realm?

There may very well be an argument to be made that he is, which is a bit of a worrying scenario in terms of the actual product being put out by the promotion ahead of its move over to Paramount at the start of 2026.