UFC 324 was meant to feel like a fresh start with a new broadcast partner, significant investment, and the promise of a smoother, crisper product. Instead, the first major talking point of the Paramount+ era was Travis Barker drumming while fans waited for fights to begin.

The reaction was fast and loud. With the card already delayed due to late cancellations, patience was running thin. Viewers who tuned in early received an extended, stylish musical segment rather than punches or pressure. For some, it felt experimental. Others believed it was a waste of time on a night when there was no need to wait any longer. But if you ask Travis Barker, being at the event was a surreal experience.

Travis Barker calls UFC debut a “dream come true”

While fans debated online, Travis Barker was experiencing something very different. Speaking with Ariel Helwani, the Blink-182 drummer stated clearly that the backlash did not change his perspective. For him, this was more than just another gig; it sat alongside career highs he never expected to touch again.

He said, “Playing the Grammys with Drake, Lil Wayne, and Eminem was pretty awesome, and that is right there with it. I was telling my wife, and she’s like, ‘That’s pretty cool, you get to go do that thing.’ I was like, ‘Babe, you don’t understand. You never really hear about them (the UFC) doing anything with the musical artists.'”

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Barker might be off the mark here, though. The UFC has collaborated with artists before, just not like this. Back at UFC 189, they brought in the late Sinead O’Connor to sing Conor McGregor’s walkout song ‘The Foggy Dew.’ But we haven’t seen anything of that magnitude since.

That lack of collaboration with musical artists is why, when the call came in from a WWE/TKO contact, Kourtney Kardashian’s husband assumed he’d simply be attending the event in his hometown. Instead, he was given the keys to something much larger. The entire piece came together quickly.

Barker wrote the music himself, based it on the UFC’s visual concept, and filmed inside the Octagon between 1 and 4 a.m., just half a day before the event. “It was surreal. I probably played that piece 30 or 40 times. I just walked around the Octagon for five minutes and didn’t say anything to anybody,” he added.

To him, it felt pure. Climbing the cage, bleeding a little after accidentally cutting himself, and taking it all in was a dream come true for him. The Blink-182 drummer admitted, “It was just like a kid in a candy store because I’m such a big fan. But all I could think of is Justin Gaethje backflipping off that cage and how I could barely crawl up and down it.”

And that’s where the disconnect exists. UFC fans saw delays and inconvenience. Travis Barker sought access to sacred ground. The drummer never sought to please everyone. For him, it was about finally entering a world he’d admired from afar for years. As for the event’s success, it still managed to get record-breaking viewership for UFC’s successful Paramount debut.

UFC 324 delivers monster numbers despite massive delay

Despite the initial frustration, viewers stayed tuned in. Even with a 72-minute delay and a shaky start, UFC 324 drew big crowds once the fights began. According to Paramount+, more than seven million households tuned in throughout the night, far beyond anything the UFC achieved during its pay-per-view era.

The main event did exactly what it needed to do. Paddy Pimblett went the full 25 minutes in a chaotic fight that rewarded anyone who stuck around. The bout helped propel the show to a 4.96 million live average audience, with a peak of 5.93 million concurrent viewers, figures that simply did not exist in the old PPV model, regardless of how prominent the stars were.

By the end of the night, UFC 324 had become Paramount+’s largest exclusive live event to date, as well as the UFC’s most-watched card in almost a decade across broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms. Delays, controversy, and poor pacing didn’t stop it. The debut proved one thing clearly: accessibility beats perfection, and the UFC’s new era has a far higher ceiling than the previous one.