We are only in April and already 2015 has seen some seismic shifts in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

– #Quiz360: WIN a group paintball session at Zayed Sports City
– Dubai World Trade Centre bears witness to a kickboxing extravaganza

One living legend has taken an indefinite leave of absence, while another suffered a career threatening injury, came back and was promptly popped for use of anabolic steroids.

Without Georges St. Pierre and the now banned Anderson Silva as active fighters, the UFC found itself shorn of two major stars. As the recent lawsuit filed by rival UFC promotion Bellator MMA showed, Mixed Martial Arts is a star-driven sport. Bellator’s lawsuit aimed to prevent Quinton “Rampage” Jackson from fighting on an upcoming UFC card.

You may say Rampage is a mediocre, past-his-prime fighter and you’d get no argument but people know him and the fact remains that names drive up fan interest.

But, as the saying goes ‘the show must go on’ and with MMA’s popularity at an all-time high, the UFC just needed to find the right faces to push to the fore. Fortunately for UFC boss Dana White, he didn’t have to look too hard.

The blueprint for creating a new star in combat sports has been the same since Muhammad Ali’s rise to prominence. Talk trash, make bold predictions and violently knock out your opponents. If you’ve followed Conor “The Notorious” McGregor’s career so far you will note that he has succeeded with flying colors in checking all these boxes. 

McGregor’s meteoric rise has been nothing short of astonishing as the brash Irishman backed up a series of massive proclamations by destroying opponents in vicious fashion.

The time was right to capitalise on his stardom, and after McGregor’s knockout of Dennis Siver, ‘The Notorious’ has his shot at UFC gold with a match-up against long-time featherweight champion Jose Aldo on the horizon.

Meanwhile, the UFC has another star on its hands and one that a few years ago may have seemed incredibly unlikely. For many, women’s MMA was simply a flash in the pan fad that only existed because the right female champion came along.

And while that still may be true, nobody could have quite expected Ronda Rousey transcending the sport in a way that hasn’t been seen in Mixed Martial Arts.

Within a one month time frame spanning from February 28 through March 29, you may have come across ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey. Perhaps it was her 14-second demolition of Cat Zingano that you witnessed?  Maybe it was on the big screen at your local theatre when you caught Furious 7, part of the highest grossing action movie series of all time.

Not your cup of tea? Then it may have been at Wrestlemania 31 which was also, you guessed it, the highest grossing professional wrestling event ever. 

Rousey is everywhere. She has become a household name and with her good looks, charisma, and insane MMA skills don’t expect her to go away anytime soon. However, to gloss over the black eye that was Silva’s positive test for using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) is doing a disservice to the fans, the sport, and all the clean fighters in MMA.

It’s a sad reality that drug abusers and cheats have been prevalent in the sport. Without any sort of real barriers, athletes were always going to find a way to gain an advantage, particularly in a sport where the gains of using steroids and diuretics can elicit huge benefits.

Earlier this year, to combat this epidemic, the UFC announced a major overhaul of its drug-testing policy. With this new comprehensive initiative fighters will be on notice.

With stricter penalties in place, the stated goal of the UFC is to provide fair competition for all athletes, making the action closer than ever before.