I'm not defending removing a mode because they never had the mode, lol, I am not a fan of EA but I am not going to fault them for something they didn't do. What they didn't follow up on that EA MMA did so well and angered a lot of people was not putting in group lobbies/fight cards and full fight replays for online fights.
But again, EA Canada, the team behind fight night, made EA UFC and they had no assets from thq/yukes so they never had and therefore didn't remove pride, championship mode, etc. They did severely lack offline modes, and other things but if you are going to understand a transition year for 2k, then you have to give the same to EA and unlike EA, 2k didn't build a new game, they did have the past assets and just modified and updated them.
Also you can't compared a match type, to a full fledge different mode like pride; from different lighting, announcing, rule set/move set, and most important a completely different arena type with a ring rather than a cage. They didn't have to make a new anything for a match type in wwe 2k15 lol.
Anyway, you are going to believe what ever you want, a better comparison would have been if EA made their new ea ufc and put out a undisputed 4 and then took out pride and etc modes to match their new game because they couldn't redo it and make it better on the new one, which is what 2k did here.