WWE license will probably be the next dropped by THQ, because it's expensive, the games are becoming stale especially at the end of the generations, and the sales are stagnant.
As for the UFC games, they had a damn fine engine put in from the first game, which I owned and enjoyed. Sure, it had it's flaws, but they did good work on it. The side stuff was where they had the problems - the menu system was probably the worst menu system I've ever seen conceived for any sports game, period. It was a long, long track to get to point A to point B, and you could spend 20 minutes doing useless shit like training and meaningless crap before you got to the next fight. Cleaning up the peripheral stuff to make the game better would go a long way.
MMA is probably the toughest sports game to have to make, to get the mix of fight vs. fun right on what happens in the cage, making each MMA fighter unique because there are no "move sets" for a fighter or signature moves like wrestling. Guys are trained in a style and all know the same things, some are just a lot better than others. I think putting things in the game that are extremely rare, but fun highlight moments for MMA as "special" moves would improve it like the Pettis cage kick, wheel kicks, front kicks, etc. Shit that are once in a million fight stoppers in the real world, but would spice up a game.
I hope the guys get a job with EA considering what foundation they've laid down so far, because their experience will be good, but a fresh approach and thinking will be necessary this time around.