MMA Universe

MMA Mania reports that XBox Live users that tried to order UFC 141 will now get UFC 142 for free this weekend. In addition, spurned users will receive a month of XBox Live Gold for free.

Originally, XBox planned a big rollout of the UFC on its platform by offering UFC 141 to 30,000 users. Server issues appear to be the cause of the difficulties which left the 30,000 plus people that signed up out in the cold. A definite public relations disaster. MMA Mania provides us with an email received by affected users.

Via MMA Mania:

You’re receiving this note because you were one of the many fans who registered to experience UFC 141 on Xbox LIVE.

First and foremost, please allow us to apologize for the technical issues that impacted your access to UFC 141 on Xbox LIVE. We remain committed to providing you with the quality experience you expect, therefore we completed a thorough investigation into the issues that prevented you from enjoying UFC 141 on Xbox LIVE, and we’re confident that we’ve addressed the problems.

We’d love it if you’d give us a second chance, and we’d like to offer you another opportunity to experience UFC on Xbox LIVE free of charge with UFC RIO: Aldo vs. Mendes on January 14th, 2012. Instructions on how to access UFC RIO on Xbox LIVE are outlined below. In addition, we’re providing all those impacted by the UFC 141 technical issues with one month of free Xbox LIVE Gold membership.

As we continue to polish and refine the application, new functionality and features will be released. In the meantime, we believe we’re building the most compelling, interactive way to experience the fun and excitement of UFC in your living room, and now it is our job to prove it to you.

Thank you for being a valued Xbox LIVE member.

Sincerely,
The Xbox LIVE Team

UFC on XBox Live will also be showing the UFC 142 press conference live this morning.

Payout Perspective:

If you were an affected XBox user let us know if you received the above email. This appears to be a good response by XBox. Not only does it quickly address the issues by giving users the chance to see the next UFC PPV, but it gives them something else: a month free of its XBox Live Gold membership. The month free is minimal cost to Microsoft and gives users a chance to get hooked on the Gold membership. We’ll see if Microsoft actually gains Gold users from this. In the end, Microsoft acknowledge its error and is trying to make good.

While there still may be some skeptics about the service, its a swift response by the Microsoft. Of course, comparing the two cards, Brock Lesnar was still the big draw and going from Lesnar to an Aldo-Mendes main event may be disappointing. In addition, Saturday night’s Patriots-Broncos game may take away another segment of MMA fans due to the “Tebow effect”.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we look at a special Friday night event from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada which featured Brock Lesnar versus Alistair Overeem.

Overeem kicks Lesnar into retirement

There’s a reason why Lesnar went off as the underdog in Vegas. It was uncertain how Lesnar would do considering he came back from diverticulitis once again. The fight was a no contest for Overeem as one kick to the gut and Lesnar was done for the night.

Classy speech by Lesnar at the end of the fight. It was the right thing to do as his last two fights have been very disappointing. For Overeem, JDS is next in what should be one of the bigger cards of 2012.

Diaz boxes out Cowboy

A lot of trash talk before made this co-main event something to watch. Indeed it was the most interesting match of the night. Diaz used the “stockton slap” as the Cowboy just stood in front of him in the first round. Cerrone used some leg sweeps to score some points but did little actual damage to Diaz.

An impressive outing for Diaz as he’s moving up in the lightweight division albeit he came in at 157 pounds.

Hendricks knocks out Fitch

Johnny Hendricks left hand was lethal as he flirted with the UFC’s fastest KO record with a knockout of Jon Fitch. A disappointing end for Fitch who was coming back from shoulder surgery. The stoppage was warranted as Fitch went limp and Hendricks was right on top to deliver more punishment if he the fight wasn’t stop.

Hendricks puts himself in line for a title shot. He’s not in the express line to a shot but is definitely someone that should be taking a step forward in the next year.

Attendance and Gate

MMA Junkie reports that UFC 141 drew a reported 12,158 fans for a reported $3.1 million gate. The figures, as custom, were given by Dana White at the post-fight press conference. The numbers fall well short of the top 5 draws in MGM Grand history but it did much better than last year’s UFC 125.

Bonuses

The bonuses were $75,000 each and went to Johnny Hendricks, Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone. Hendricks was the obvious choice for KO of the night while Diaz and Cerrone earned fight of the night honors. There were no submissions so no sub of the night.

Countdown to UFC 141 debuted on Fuel TV a week before the event and garnered a poor 15,000 viewers. Hopefully, the January 1st UFC marathon helped with marketing of the network as the new place for the UFC.

Salaries were released earlier than normal by the Nevada State Athletic Commission because lawyers for Golden Glory obtained an order to garnish the salary of Alistair Overeem. Of no surprise, Brock Lesnar topped the list. Overeem was set to earn $385K but was asked to garnish roughly 30%. However, it was revealed Monday that no bond was posted to garnish the salary as required by Nevada law. So, Overeem was able to receive all of his earnings. This will make the litigation between Overeem and Golden Glory much more contentious.

Sponsorships

Clothing brand RYU and wireless service provider MetroPCS became sponsors of the UFC this month. RYU was a sponsor to the “backstage camera” and MetroPCS had signage in the Octagon. RYU also sponsored Jon Fitch. Unfortunately for Fitch, the RYU walkout shirt was seen much more than on his shorts as the fight lasted just 12 seconds.

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With the addition of MetroPCS and Gina Carano’s new movie, “Haywire,” the regular sponsors (SafeAuto, TapouT, Harley Davidson, Toyo Tires, Bud Light) were in the Octagon. Speaking of Haywire, Carano was in attendance and was interviewed about the movie.

Harley Davidson pumped up its Hometown Throwdown contest again.

MusclePharm had a special graphic shown during the tale of the tape before Overeem and Lesnar.

The Cowboy has used his hat to put sponsors on each side of the hat in the past and now he’s used under the brim. Way to use the real estate. Maybe that’s why he got so upset that Diaz flicked it off his head.

Jimy Hettes had sponsors AzadWatch.com and Palooka.com as sponsors. I noticed these two sponsors since they were on the back of his fight shorts and maintained dominant position on Nam Pham most of their match. Good placement for the two sponsors.

It was announced prior to UFC 141, that Lesnar signed an endorsement deal with Everlast. I wonder what impact his retirement will have on the deal?

Post-UFC 141 Headlines

Lesnar retires, what now?

With the retirement of Brock Lesnar, the UFC lost its top PPV draw. A Lesnar card meant 1 million PPV buys was a certainty. With his departure, and the absence of GSP for most of the year and Anderson Silva out until at least June, the UFC is in a precarious PPV position as its lost its top three stars for the first half of 2012. Jon Jones could be the next PPV breakout star.

But, perhaps as when teams go without its star, it makes the rest of the team stronger and better. This can be a time that the UFC can build up its existing stars (Jones, Edgar, Diaz). Of course, Rashad Evans is another top PPV draw but will be on the Fox broadcast on January 28th. His next fight (fingers crossed) will likely be the long-awaited bout with Jon Jones sometime this summer (maybe Memorial Day weekend). What will the PPV buys look like in the first half of the year?

Young fighters impress

Jimy Hettes and Alexander Gustafsson made statements in their fights on the main card of the PPV. Hettes was impressive in his fight with Nam Phan and Gustafsson took care of the Vladimir Matyushenko. Both of these guys look to be moving up the ranks of their respective divisions.

Odds and ends

-Why no Joe Rogan post-fight interview for Jimy Hettes? He deserved some mic time.

-After Diaz flipped Cerrone’s cowboy hat earlier in the week, Diaz gave Cerrone his beanie after their fight. It looked like Diaz wanted Cerrone to give him his cowboy hat kind of like an exchange of opponent jerseys in soccer.

-The last live event on Spike occurred with little or no mention that the UFC-Spike relationship was ending. Of course, if you are Spike, you are still showing the UFC library so why mention it.

-I was in Canada last week and noticed Rogers giving a top 5 of Lesnar’s greatest fights. It was interesting to me that the number 1 moment was his win over Frank Mir and they showed his infamous rant after the fight (“going to have a Coors Light because Bud doesn’t pay me” and “get on his wife” comments). That’s something they would not play in the US anymore.

PPV issues

This was the first time that XBox users could purchase a UFC events through its XBox Live platform. As a promotion for this, XBox gave away 30,000 free PPV passes to watch the event.  Unfortunately, technical difficulties destroyed the opportunity for anyone to access the UFC on XBox. To make amends, the UFC promised all that purchased the event on XBox, it would be able to see another UFC event for free. The problem with this, is that consumers are now weary of this method of watching the PPV and less likely to use this platform. We see that there are some glitches in the system and the UFC must fix them, restore trust and address this PR problem as well.

In addition to the XBox problem, I received notice that Rogers in Ontario, Canada had technical difficulties as well. People that purchased the PPV were refunded money as the cable operator acknowledged the problems.

These problems do not bode well for the overall viewership of the PPV. Even with Lesnar at the top of the card, the final number could have been better but for these issues.

Injuries have plagued 2011 as many of the UFC’s top stars have had to postpone or delay fights this year.

GSP, Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones, Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard and Rashad Evans are just a sample of the fighters that were scratched from PPV cards due to injury. This does not even touch upon the number of fighters on the undercards that have been shuffled due to injury.

Lorenzo Fertitta acknowledged this fact in a recent LA Times interview.

Via the LA Times:

…but our biggest issue lately has been 11 of our last 14 main events have fallen out and required replacement fighters. It’s like there’s been a hex over us. So it’s been a challenge to run the business how we’ve planned to.

Fetitta indicated that if the UFC gets a run of of good health (and is able to book the fighters and fights it can), then the business will take off.

Injuries haven’t helped with the PPV buys for the UFC. This year we saw a decrease in PPV numbers and only two shows (UFC 126 and UFC 129) reached 500K PPV buys. In 2010, 11 PPVs scored 500K or better.

If the Brock Lesnar factor holds true, UFC 141 would be the only UFC PPV this year to go over 1 million PPV buys.

At the beginning of the year, Dave Metzler believed that 2011 would be a rebuilding year for PPVs. But, he cited the need to build up the bantamweight and featherweight divisions and building new stars as reasons for smaller PPV numbers. Jon Jones is a new star that the UFC hopes to build into a PPV attraction. However, the PPV numbers do not reflect the bantamweight, featherweight or lightweights gaining traction as main eventers. As an example, the third fight between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard at UFC 136 received only 225K PPV buys.

It will be interesting to see how 2012 will fare on the injury front. We already know Anderson Silva will not be available until mid-2012. This will delay a guaranteed PPV draw, a potential rematch with Chael Sonnen. Also, GSP will be out until late 2012 and the division will have an interim champion in the meantime.

We will see if the UFC tries to push Jon Jones to the forefront as a PPV draw. Also, how will the UFC utilize the flyweight division. And, will the lighter weight divisions draw. We shall see at UFC 142 as Jose Aldo fights Chad Mendes in the main event.

Of course another factor in addressing the PPV buys is PPV fatigue. There will be 16 PPVs this year with a PPV almost a bimonthly happening. Its hard for a fan to pay over $100 bucks a month in PPVs in addition to their normal cable/satellite bill. Couple the economic factor with the injuries to main events, and its a combination which likely led to the lower numbers.

Photo via LA Times

UFC 129 in Toronto was the company’s first stadium show which set records for attendance, gate and bonuses. The bonuses were the biggest ($129,000) in recent memory. It also held the first of two UFC Expos held this year. In the end, the UFC had a substantial impact on the economy in Toronto.

The card featured the showdown between GSP vs. Jake Shields, Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick and Randy Couture (in his final match) vs. Lyoto Machida.

UFC 129 was the biggest PPV buy of this year (excluding UFC 141) with 800,000 buys. We will see how it does in January for UFC 142 as Aldo headlines the card.

UFC 134 in Rio De Jineiro, Brazil was a return for the company. The show was a sellout and similar to Toronto, the crowd was hot during the entire show. Anderson Silva headlined the show by defeating Yushin Okami. Notably, the UFC promoted that it would air the prelims on a digital screen in the Little Brazil section of Times Square to watch the prelims. Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Irene, this promotion was thwarted.

Silva scored major sponsors for UFC 134 including a soccer club, Burger King and Nike. He also starred in a Budweiser commercial that aired in Brazil.

Bonuses were huge as well with every category winner getting $100,000.

Unlike 129, UFC 134 did not score as well with PPV as it only garnered 335,000 buys.

The UFC’s return to Toronto this December did not garner as much fanfare as 129 but received a nice PPV number of 480,000 buys worldwide.

These two shows paved the way for international expansion for the UFC. 129’s stadium show displayed the type of draw and economic impact it could have over an area when it comes to town and its Rio show spawned UFC 142 and the first international TUF.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This week we look at the UFC’s return to Toronto as the UFC made a stop at the Air Canada Center as Jon Jones defended his title against Lyoto Machida.

Jones chokes out Machida

Despite losing the first round, Jon Jones showed resolve to come back and defeat “The Dragon”. Jones used his size to complete a standing guillotine which rendered Machida limp.  Up next for Jones will be the winner of Rashad Evans/Phil Davis in January. At this point, Jones looks like he is gaining confidence and looks real comfortable in the Octagon, something to worry about for those in his division.

Mir snaps Big Nog’s shoulder

Frank Mir broke Tim Sylvia’s arm for his black belt and may have earned another stripe for his kimura on Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera. Big Nog had Mir in trouble but Mir was able to gather himself to reverse Noguiera, grabbed his arm and locked in the kimura. The gruesome replay were shown over and over again with the crowd “ooing” each time the arm seemingly snapped.

Zombie surprises Hominick

It took only seconds for the Chang Sung Jung to defeat Canadian favorite Mark Hominick. A disappointing return for Hominick.

Attendance, Gate and Bonuses

As reported earlier in the week 18,303 fans attended for a gate of $3.9 million Canadian ($3.77 million U.S.).According to F4Wonline.com (subscription required), about 15,000 paid although it was not a sell-out. F4WOnline opined that the disappointing turnout may be due to the UFC coming back too fast.

MMA Junkie reported the bonuses for UFC 140 with each receiving $75,000.

KO of the night: The Korean Zombie
Submission of the night: Frank Mir
Fight of the Night: Jones-Machida

Sponsorships

The Octagon included Xyience, Toyo Tires, Dodge, TapouT, Musclepharm, the UFC’s Ultmate DVD Collection, StubHub, Batteflield 3 had the side pads (including graphics) and was on the mat, Bud Light was present on the ring pads and center.

Bony Acai, Harley Davidson and StubHub were presenting sponsors for UFC 140. The U.S. Marines had its usual “mini-fighter”  matchup for Jones-Machida.

UFC.com Store owned the fighter prep point.

Harley Davidson is taking part in the UFC Hometown Throwdown promotion which had been previously promoted at other events as well as 140. Similar to the WEC version, it asks fans to pick a city in which they would want the UFC to hold an event. The promotion asks for fans to provide an email address in order to take part. The UFC will email the fans when the final cities are chosen.

Mark Hominick wore the CFL’s Hamilton TiCats gear once again.

Jon Jones wore his Form Athletics jacket in the back and during the walkout.

Brian Ebersole is now sponsored by TapouT as one witnessed via the logo shaved into his chest. He also was sponsored by BuyMMACards.com, which replaced MiddleEasy.com on his shorts.

Logistics company and fight sponsor Blue Grace made subtle changes to its logo including a visible web address for people to see.

Notably, EBX, which is a Brazilian investment company, sponsored the Nogueira brothers. We might expect more Brazilian and South American companies jumping into sponsorship with the upcoming card this January and with TUF: Brazil.

No Suffer on Mir this time as he sported a simple Jaco Hybrid Training Black t-shirt in his walkout.

The Korean Zombie did not wear his popular shirt but a white shirt with his Korean sponsors.

UFCstore.com had the Fighter prep point

More info on walkout wear here.

Jon Jones and Frank Mir broke out Xenergy drinks immediately after their win before their post-fight interview.

Not a lot of notable new sponsors here. The Octagon seemed UFC heavy. Perhaps this is due to the anticipated holiday shopping season. The UFC had indicated that new sponsors would not occur until the first quarter of next year.

Post-UFC 140 Headline

The only real headline coming out of this event is what’s next for Jon Jones. While some wish for a Jones-Anderson Silva matchup, its more likely that Jones face Rashad Evans provided he gets past Phil Davis and stays healthy enough to make it to the showdown.

Odds and Ends

- Tito Ortiz is now calling himself “The People’s Champ.” I thought the Rock was “The People’s Champ?” Copyright issues? Of course, I thought that Marshawn Lynch would have copyrighted “Beast Mode” too.

- UFC Countdown show aired on the Fox Regional Sports Networks as early as Sunday before the fight (according to the Direct TV guide) but either I was not paying attention or there was a lack of notice, but I missed the Countdown show when it was on my RSN. It appeared on the Audience Network later in the week and was online so I was able to catch it. Not sure if anyone else had a problem finding it on their RSN.

Buy Rate

Early estimations on the buy rate for UFC 140 by the Wrestling Observer have it at 440,000 buys in the US and 480,000 buys worldwide. This is a positive considering the UFC’s string of sub-400 PPV buys.  It also shows that Jones is beginning to grow as a PPV draw. Jones vs. Rampage did 475,000 buys and it has improved if you take the worldwide buy rate.

The UFC is coming to XBox Live on December 20th. XBox announced via twitter the start date in which fans can purchase UFC PPVs on the XBox platform.

It was announced last summer at E3 by Dana White that UFC PPVs would be on XBox. Earlier this fall, it was announced that the UFC would be available on December 1st with the first live event available being UFC 140 on December 10th. It now looks like the first PPV available on the platform would be UFC 141 on December 30th.

Payout Perspective:

We will continue to follow this story and see if there was any reason behind what appears to be a delay in rolling out the UFC on XBox. The video above was posted by XBox on November 30th. Its a good promo featuring White and various UFC stars. It looks like the UFC on XBox will also include a social media component which will allow users to post things onto their Facebook pages. As we’ve stated before, the UFC-Microsoft relationship is a good thing. We will see how many people jump on their XBox to order UFC PPVs. With PPV buys down overall, it will be interesting to see what affect the UFC’s partnership with XBox does.

The UFC is coming to XBox Live on December 20th. XBox announced via twitter the start date in which fans can purchase UFC PPVs on the XBox platform.

It was announced last summer at E3 by Dana White that UFC PPVs would be on XBox. Earlier this fall, it was announced that the UFC would be available on December 1st with the first live event available being UFC 140 on December 10th. It now looks like the first PPV available on the platform would be UFC 141 on December 30th.

Payout Perspective:

We will continue to follow this story and see if there was any reason behind what appears to be a delay in rolling out the UFC on XBox. The video above was posted by XBox on November 30th. Its a good promo featuring White and various UFC stars. It looks like the UFC on XBox will also include a social media component which will allow users to post things onto their Facebook pages. As we’ve stated before, the UFC-Microsoft relationship is a good thing. We will see how many people jump on their XBox to order UFC PPVs. With PPV buys down overall, it will be interesting to see what affect the UFC’s partnership with XBox does.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This week we look at UFC 139 at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, California where Dan Henderson defeated Maurico Rua in a 5 round battle.

Henderson defeats Rua in instant classic

It appeared that Dan Henderson would make short work of Mauricio Rua as it appeared that Rua was a goner in the first round. However, Rua survived, the referee did not stop it prematurely and fans saw an epic back and forth fight. Rua came back in rounds 4 and 5 but it wasn’t enough. While both fighters were gassed at different points of the fight, this is probably the reason why the UFC wanted main events to go 5 rounds. Both fighters showed a warrior mentality and left it all in the octagon.

Silva KOs Le

Sandstorm may be heard again in the UFC. Wanderlei Silva defeated Cung Le in front of Le’s hometown crowd. The win likely ensures that Silva will fight once again in the UFC. For Le, it appeared that he lacked the cardio needed to fight three rounds. A disappointing debut.

Faber submits Bowles; another rematch with Cruz next

Urijah Faber choked out Brian Bowles to earn another shot at Dominick Cruz. It seemed as though Faber’s presence on this card was undersold. Yet, there are rumors that Faber and Cruz will be the next TUF coaches. Based on Faber’s post-fight trash talk, this isn’t a bad idea considering the solid ratings this season’s TUF. The animosity between the two fighters and its debut on the FX channel should propel next season’s TUF.

Attendance and Gate

MMA Junkie reports attendance of 13,173 for a gate of $1.268 million. In comparison, Fedor vs. Werdum in June 2010 drew 12,698 fans for a gate of $1.1 million at the HP Pavillion in San Jose.

Bonuses

MMA Junkie reports the bonuses for UFC 139. Each fighter received $70,000. Interesting that there was a tie for Fight of the Night. In my opinion, Rua vs. Henderson was the clear winner for FOTN honor. If there was a tie, I would have given the bonus to Chris Weidman for Sub of the Night.

Fight of the Night: Cung Le vs. Wanderlei Silva; Mauricio Rua vs. Dan Henderson
Submission of the Night: Urijah Faber
Knockout of the Night: Michael McDonald

Sponsorships

-The usual suspects were in the octagon for UFC 139. Xyience, Dodge, Tapout, Harley Davidson, MusclePharm and Bud Light had the center of the Octagon a well as the side pads. The UFC also advertised its Ultimate Fight Collection just in time for the holidays.

- Clinchgear was featured via Dan Henderson. I really like Henderson’s branded DH apparel.

- Tom Lawlor was sponsored by XBox as part of its Kinect Sports 2 launch. He sported a t-shirt at weigh-ins and XBox 360 on his shorts. It was the only sponsor on his shorts. According to an XBox rep, this is just a one-time opportunity as it was specifically for the launch. Pat Barry had a similar sponsor opportunity with XBox 360. Demetrious Johnson remains as the only UFC fighter to continually be sponsored by XBox 360.

Twitter

Notably, Dan Henderson and Shogun were trending an hour after the PPV. In Brazil, Rua and Wanderlei Silva were trending topics after the PPV. The Henderson-Shogun battle received a lot of buzz via twitter. On another note, Bellator’s Chandler-Alvarez fight received its share of twitter buzz too.

Post-UFC 139 Headlines

- What’s next for Hendo? Does Dan Henderson fight at 205 or 185? Either division would present interesting title match-ups. At 205, Henderson would come up against Jon Jones, a guy almost 20 years his junior. At middleweight, Henderson could get a rematch with Anderson Silva.  Or, a Team Quest alum fight with Chael Sonnen. Either middleweight match-up seems more attractive than Jones.

- Cruz-Faber trilogy. Can this rivalry assist the lighter weight divisions? Certainly this season’s TUF is helping draw a steady viewership. A possible TUF with the animosity of these fighters should propel next season’s version.

Odds and Ends

- Talking about a guy’s widow’s peak and hair gel is pretty personal Mr. Faber. This rivalry is heating up and that’s a good thing.

- I wrote about the interesting weigh-ins this time around and the opportunity for a fighter to create their own personal branding. It also helps to make weight.

- Was Stephan Bonnar’s post-fight apology attempting to mitigate any possible lawsuit from Josh Koshcheck about making t-shirts with his likeness?

- For as good as Hendo-Rua was Dana White stated that the fight would have been too violent if it had aired on Fox as the UFC is still in the “education process.”

-UPDATED: Fighter Wear and fighter entrance music here courtesy of FighterxFashion.

Conclusion

After the big UFC on Fox airing, UFC 139 seemed like an afterthought. It was a very good card but lacked the buzz. One reason may be that Fuel aired the one hour countdown show instead of Spike TV before Spike aired it late Thursday night. Second, many casual viewers may not know Dan Henderson or Mauricio Rua. Certainly, these guys showed that they could put on a good fight. Yet, they aren’t known names. Finally, there is a level of fatigue the casual viewer (or perhaps every viewer) has with these PPVs. It seems like every other week fans are spending money on fights.  With the holidays coming up, some budgeting has to take place and that may mean a decline in PPV purchases. Based on the last couple of PPVs (UFC 136-225K buys, UFC 137-280K buys), it would not be out of line to state that UFC 139 is in the neighborhood of 250K buys. With that being said, it may be time to recalibrate how many PPV buys makes a card successful.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 137 coming from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the main event, Nick Diaz convincingly defeated BJ Penn affirming the need for a showdown with Georges St. Pierre.

Diaz retires Penn; GSP next

So now its obvious why Dana White kept Nick Diaz on the Zuffa roster despite no-showing press conference after press conference. Diaz showed his boxing skills as well as his jiu jitsu proficiency. For Penn, it sounded like he is eyeing retirement. At only 32, it seems like Penn could still make one last run at a title. But, if he were to end his career, he was one of the most dominant fighters in the UFC.

While it appeared Penn acted like it was his last match in the UFC, he may just take some time off and reassess. At 32, he is still fairly young, but his dominant reign in the UFC is over.

Kongo dominates Mitrione

In the “co-main event,” Cheick Kongo defeated Matt Mitrione in a less than exciting match. For as much a personality Mitrione is, he could not handle Kongo. This fight was a main event in name only as a result of GSP’s injury. While it is written that this puts Kongo’s name in the heavyweight title picture, it seems like Kongo may need one or two more fights before he goes up against JDS or Cain.

Nelson defeats Cro-Cop

Nelson’s fat suit at the weigh-ins was pretty funny considering the fact that it initially looked like him. Still Nelson looked sharp. For Cro-Cop, it was his last fight in the UFC ring. He has been on the decline for a while at he gave a very nice post-match interview.

Attendance and Gate

MMA Junkie reports that the attendance of the event was 10,313 for $3.9 million.

Bonuses

MMA Junkie also had the bonuses for UFC. The bonuses were $75K each and were as follows:

Fight of the Night: Diaz and Penn
Submission of the Night: Donald Cerrone
KO of the night: Bart Palaszewski

Cerrone and Palaszewski were featured on the Spike TV Prelims.

Salaries

Salaries were released (via MMA Fighting)

Nick Diaz: $200,000 (no win bonus) def. BJ Penn: $150,000
Cheick Kongo: $70,000 ($70,000 win bonus) def. Matt Mitrione: $10,000
Roy Nelson: $20,000 ($20,000 win bonus) def. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic: $75,000
Scott Jorgensen: $16,500 ($16,500 win bonus) def. Jeff Curran: $8,000
Hatsu Hioki: $15,000 ($15,000 win bonus) def. George Roop: $8,000
Donald Cerrone: $27,000 ($27,000 win bonus) def. Dennis Siver: $27,000
Bart Palaszewski: $18,500 ($10,000 win bonus) def. Tyson Griffin: $25,500*
Brandon Vera: $60,000 ($60,000 win bonus) def. Eliot Marshall: $15,000
Ramsey Nijem: $10,000 ($10,000 win bonus) def. Danny Downes: $4,000
Francis Carmont: $6,000 ($6,000 win bonus) def. Chris Carmozzi: $8,000
Clifford Starks: $6,000 ($6,000 win bonus) def. Dustin Jacoby: $6,000

* Griffin was scheduled to earn $34,000 for his fight against Palaszewski; Palaszewski was scheduled to make $10,000. Griffin missed weight, however, and was penalized 25 percent ($8,500) of his show money, which was added to Palaszewski’s show money total.

Diaz’s salary likely would have been the same if he had fought GSP. Also, I’m wondering how much of a locker room bonus BJ Penn received for fighting Diaz instead of Carlos Condit. Its also interesting that Brandon Vera made $120,000 despite having his fight on Facebook (and almost breaking his arm).

I am in favor of how the UFC penalizes those that don’t make weight. In the case of Tyson Griffin, who missed by 3 pounds, he forfeited his scheduled salary and that amount was given to Palaszewski. Also worked out for Palaszewski considering he picked up a KO bonus as well.

Pre-Fight Promotion

Initially a Primetime series was going to follow GSP and Nick Diaz for their showdown. However, with Diaz being reassigned, the Primetime series was scrapped. The UFC Countdown show for 137 was only 30 minutes as opposed to the normal hour edition. Still, I thought it did a good job in telling the Nick Diaz backstory as well as including his hobby of triathlons.

The re-revised promos for UFC 137 featured the infamous “Don’t be scared homie” quote. It’s weird to think that Bill Goldberg was the interviewer in the middle of Diaz and KJ Noons (the recipient of the Diaz trash talk).

Sponsorships

The UFC Octagon did not have any new sponsors with the exception of signage for UFC Undisputed 3 which was in the Octagon and had the checkpoint area.

When it was announced that Nick Diaz would be facing BJ Penn, Metal Mullisha announced its sponsorship deal with Diaz. Diaz has worn the brand in Strikeforce. In addition, Diaz was to have a sponsor for his walkout music.

The UFC announced that the BJ Penn-UFC branded Gym in Hawaii would be taking memberships about a week before 137.

Jaco ran a deal for Brandon Vera fans with a special coupon code on Vera’s fight gear. Vera also was sponsored by Toyo Tires for his Facebook fight.

Matt Mitrione sported new fight shirt company Traumma. Strikeforce heavyweight Daniel Cormier is also sponsored by the company as he wore the shirt on a recent episode of InsideMMA.

Mitrione also wore a Chris Lytle for Senate shirt at weigh-ins. Its the first political shirt of campaign season.

Donald Cerrone wore SafeAuto and Tapout stickers on his cowboy hat during his post-fight interview. Once again, a great use of the hat by the Cowboy.

Post UFC 137 storylines

GSP-Diaz next. Carlos Condit, meet Anthony Pettis. Although, Dana White stated Condit “stepped aside” for GSP-Diaz. Condit’s manager, Malki Kawa, states otherwise. It would be disappointing if Condit does not get a shot through no fault of his own. But, let’s face it. He will have another fight before his “promised” title shot against the GSP-Diaz winner. If he loses, its almost certain he loses his shot as well. Certainly, GSP-Diaz is the match everyone wants to see. In fact, I think they made it before.

Odds and ends

-Pink gloves by the refs. I understand the intent and the cause, but do we really need it in the octagon. The NFL has jumped on the branding for Breast Cancer Awareness month, but it seems like its overdone.

-Donald Cerrone. I believe “The Cowboy” is one of the best fighters coming out of the WEC merger. I like the personal branding. Wearing jeans, cowboy hat and cowboy boots at the weigh-ins distinguishing him from others. Plus, he’s a pretty good fighter. The Cowboy will be the co-main event on PPV for UFC 141.

-Speaking of personal branding, Ramsey Nijem embracing a Chippendale’s gimmick at weigh-ins with bow-tie and no-shirt. Did we not learn anything from Dennis Hallman?

-Brandon Vera arm was nearly broken by Eliot Marshall but he still won by unanimous decision.

-I really liked Hatsui Haoki’s Dethrone “bird” shirt. FighterxFashion has the rest of the walkout shirts.

-The UFC sent a press release of video of the Penn-Diaz weigh-in which it described as a “scuffle.” Not sure if its done this before or sent to hype the card due to concern about the drawing power.

-Alex Rodriguez was in attendance. Does this help or hurt the UFC’s popularity?

PPV Numbers

The top of this card was hurt first by Diaz’s no-shows, the card reshuffle and GSP’s injury. The UFC first touted UFC 137 as being Champion vs. Champion. Despite the removal of GSP from the main event, the UFC indicated that the show was a sell-out. After GSP’s injury, the card took a big star power hit despite BJ Penn in the main event. The co-main event featured mid-card level talent (Nelson, Mittrione, Kongo and Cro-Cop). Cro-Cop is past his prime while the other 3 are not top of the card caliber. It would be hard to foresee the buys for this card exceeding 350K.

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The MMAPayout.com Pay-Per-View, Television, and Live Gate & Attendance sections of the  Blue Book have been updated to include all events in 2011. Reminder: you always access the information via the tab on the menu bar of every page.

The sponsorship portion of the Payout Blue Book will be the next big project we will tackle. If anyone has any preferences, feedback, or ideas, please let us know.  We will keep you updated on the progress of the project and will inform you when that goes live.

Thanks for reading as always,
MMAPayout Staff

News broke last week that the UFC was planning to move the its PPVs back to a 7pm/10pm start time starting with December 30th’s UFC 141. In April at UFC 129, the UFC moved the start times up to 6pm/9pm to accommodate the east coast viewers.

In Jason’s perspective yesterday, he asked the question, “It would be interesting to know if the breakdown in PPV buys this year led the UFC to conclude that the 6pm start time did not influence PPV buys“.

I wondered the same thing, so I though I’d take a closer look at the numbers and try comparing buyrate averages leading up to the April 30th change to the subsequent events that followed.

So here I compared the buyrate averages from the 7 events prior to the change to the 7 events that followed.

UFC 121 to 128 covered the period between November 23 2010 and March 19 2011. The estimated average number of buys over this stretch was approximately 576,000. In comparison, UFC 129 to 135, which covered a time period between April 30 2011 through to September 24 2011 had an estimated 414,000 buys. That’s a decrease of 28% after the start time was moved up to 6pm/9pm at the end April.

NOTE: If we exclude UFC 121, we see a drop of approximately 17% after the change to 6/9pm (498k pre/414k post)

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Payout Perspective:

It’s hard to say for certain if this is the primary reason for the drop. There was a rash of injuries and health issues in the spring which effected main events and many argue that an over saturation of the product is causing consumer fatigue. But the move by the UFC signals they feel strongly that the change is having enough of an impact on their product that they are willing to revert back to the original start time less then a year after making the change.

Dave Metzler at F4Wonline.com is reporting that the UFC is returning its PPVs back to the 7pm/10pm start time starting with December 30th’s UFC 141. The UFC moved up the start time starting with UFC 129 in Toronto to accommodate its east coast viewers.

As we noted when the announcement to move the PPVs up one hour, it would hurt west coast viewership. Considering the fact that prelim fights on Facebook would start mid-afternoon for west coast viewers, most west coasters would still be out and about. The theory was that the 6pm move made sense from the perspective that the UFC wanted as many east coast viewers to see the PPVs. Now, it appears that the UFC’s experiment is over.

Payout Perspective:

The sagging PPV buys are the likely reason why the UFC is moving back the start times. It would be interesting to know if the breakdown in PPV buys this year led the UFC to conclude that the 6pm start time did not influence PPV buys. Certainly, the UFC is hoping for a big spike in buys for 141 considering its PPV bell cow, Brock Lesnar, is on the card.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we come to you from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas where fans saw one of the best cards of this year.

Edgar bullies Maynard

The first round of Edgar Maynard III looked a lot like Edgar Maynard II. Instead, Maynard remained composed throughout the rest of the round. However, Maynard seemed too lax in the second and Edgar got to Maynard in the fourth.

Maynard looked stunned after the match. Not sure who looked more crestfallen: Maynard or Kenny Florian.

Aldo outlasts Florian

Jose Aldo controlled the match and defeated a game Kenny Florian. When the final round ended, Florian had a look of a defeated fighter and someone that knew his career (at least trying to win UFC gold) was over.

Sonnen outclasses Stann

Chael Sonnen returned to the Octagon to beat Brian Stann. This was a definite step up in competition for Stann and it showed. Sonnen had his way with Stann and used the arm triangle to choke him out.

But what was more interesting than the fight was the post-fight interview. Short, brief and concise. Sonnen challenged Anderson Silva (who was in attendance and sitting next to Charles Barkley) to a loser leaves match (Silva leaves division or Sonnen leaves the UFC). A textbook pro wrestling promo: 1) Insult opponent, 2) challenge said opponent to a fight, 3) state when the fight is happening, 4) state stipulations and 5) leave.

Silva thought the promo was hilarious and the UFC attempted to diffuse the situation by panning the camera to Barkley.

Phan outlasts Garcia – Third fight upcoming?

In the fight of the night, Nam Phan defeated Leonard Garcia in another entertaining slugfest. How is it that Leonard Garcia got more post-fight interview time than Nam Phan? It seems like the UFC is trying to package these guys together. Initially, Phan said in the post-fight interview he didn’t want another fight with Garcia but seemed more receptive later. I think Phan is thinking about moving up and on but the UFC may sign them up for another fight.

Garcia will never be cut by the UFC although he really must try something different. All of his fights look like he’s swinging like a guy in a bar at last call. He’ll be in the same category as Pat Barry and Dan Hardy. Entertaining fighters but not successful.

Attendance and Gate:

MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiappetta reported attendance of 16,164 for a gate of $2.3 million. According to the Toyota Center web site, the arena houses 18,300 for basketball and 19,000 for concerts. Not sure The attendance figure is better than the UFC’s last event at the arena, UFC 69. However, 69 produced a bigger gate: $2.8 million.

Bonuses

MMA Junkie reports that the bonuses for UFC 136 were $75,000 each.
Fight of the Night: Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia
Submission of the Night: Joe Lauzon
KO of the Night: Frankie Edgar

Promotion of UFC 136

The UFC had an off beat promo for UFC 136 entitled, “The Great Debate.” It currently has over 191,000 views on YouTube.

The UFC also held another #Hunt4UFC, where White gave hints on places around Houston to be at for fans to win tickets.

UPDATE 10/10:  Forgot to include this great interview on CNN with Frankie Edgar.

Sponsorships

Upcoming movie release, Immortal, Tapout, Dodge, UFC Trainer, UFC.com store, Xyience, SafeAuto Insurance, Toyo Tires and Bud Light with the center were in the cage tonight. Is it me or is the UFC.com store being promoted much more.

Fighter walkout shirts are here. I like the track jackets that some fighters are using. Although its hard to pull over the gloves, its still another piece that clothing brands can market.

We saw for the first time the video game cover for the UFC video game, “Undisputed 3”. As reported by USA Today, Anderson Silva was voted to be on the cover after THQ conducted a poll to see which UFC champion should be on the cover.

Xyience took the fighting check point. It appears that its a revolving sponsor although Harley Davidson had the checkpoint for some time.

There was a huge push for the movie Immortal. Chael Sonnen wore it on his fight trunks and had an Immortal hat on during a taped interview in the pre-fight hype package.

UFC Fan Expo

The UFC held another fan expo in Houston which gave fans, sponsors and fighters the ability to interact. No word on attendance at the expo but we will follow up. With the first one going on in Toronto for 129 and this one happening for 136, we should expect at least a couple expos in 2012.

Post-UFC 136 storylines

Sonnen vs. Silva – Super Bowl Weekend. The event is not on the schedule yet but I guess we have our first fight. This will be a big event and should help jumpstart 2012 with a big buy rate. Sonnen will be in full promo mode and with the help of Fox, we’re going to be seeing Sonnen’s face all over the Fox networks. There are talks of this being in Cowboys Stadium although that seems like talk at this point.

Aldo vs. Mendes – An interesting matchup but what will be more interesting will be how much longer Aldo will stay in the Featherweight division. He’s had trouble with the weigh cut and an Aldo-Edgar, Aldo-Melendez fight would bring some spark to the lighter weight divisions.

Edgar vs. Melendez or Aldo? – The worst kept secret is that the Strikeforce lightweight champion is coming to the UFC to “unify” the titles. The matchup makes sense and would draw interest. But when will it happen. Melendez is slated for a Strikeforce title defense in December. But, Dana White is bullish on Melendez in the UFC lightweight division. White also said that he’s interested in Edgar going up against Jose Aldo.

PPV Buys

Last night marked the end of a three week period where four UFC titles were up for grabs. UFC 136 was one of the best, if not the best card the UFC has put on this year. Top to bottom, the card was exciting. It will be interesting to see what the PPV buys will end up at. Does anything lower than 400K say anything about fan perceptions of the lower weight divisions? Or is it just that there are too many PPVs going around that fans just can’t buy them all?

Odds and ends

Rashad Evans got booed again when the camera panned to him. What was funny is when the camera widened fans cheered for Forrest Griffin who was sitting next to him. Griffin looked back at Evans and playfully laughed at him. Pretty funny considering these two fought for the title a couple years ago.

Chad Mendes was announced as the newest member of Team Edge. Good for him considering he may get the next title shot against Jose Aldo.

Another loss by Tiequan Zhang. He was thought to help garner interest from Chinese fans. But, his losses are mounting and it seems like the UFC may have to look to someone else to make inroads into the Chinese market.

The Spike Prelims featured Anthony Pettis and Demian Maia. Good match-ups which should mean another good rating.

Among the writeups for UFC 136, there was this one on Nam Pham.

Kotaku reports that the UFC PPVs will be available on XBox 360 Dec. 1st and its first live event will be UFC 140. Dana White made the announcementabout PPVs on the game console this past summer at E3.

Via Kotaku:

Watching the the MMA promotion’s fights on Xbox 360 will let you and your XBL friends predict winners, with the results of the pseudo-wagering kept on a leaderboard. The PPVs will stream in 720 and you’ll be able to navigate through the content with Kinect, if you like actually moving your arms.

Here are some more amenities that the Xbox 360-UFC deal will provide. (via Middle Easy through the UFC press release):

Live and On-Demand Video – Event previews, UFC Countdown, press conferences, weigh-ins, interviews, workouts, highlights, and more, together for the first time on your big screen. Streaming HD Quality in 720p – UFC fans demand stunning HD viewing, and Xbox LIVE brings the most premium streaming HD to the big screen. Pay-Per-View with Ease – The biggest pay-per-view fights available to all Xbox LIVE members in HD and SD pricing options. Purchase directly with your credit card, Microsoft Points not required. Interactive Fight Card with Predictions – Size up the fighters with the tale of the tape and view their past fight results. Predict upcoming fights, compare results with friends for points and bragging rights, and see where you stand against them on the leaderboard, all accessible while watching the fight so you’ll never have to leave the excitement of the Octagon. Control the action with Kinect – Focus on the fight instead of looking for the remote. Navigate through the video content, bring up the Interactive Fight Card, or play, pause, and rewind that big punch, kick or submission…all with the magic of Kinect.

No word on the price of purchasing the PPV on Xbox 360 or if you can use XBox points toward the purchase. I’m not up on using the “points” on the system but I will ask a source (my 9 year old nephew) and get back to you.

The initial announcement stated that the UFC PPV would be available only to XBox 360 Live subscribers.

H/t: MMA Metrics

Payout Perspective:

As we pointed out back when the UFC made the initial announcement, the partnership with Microsoft means another mainstream sponsor comes on board with the organization. You may also see more fighters being sponsored by Xbox 360 on the 140 card for branding purposes. No word if Demetrious Johnson (XBox 360’s sole sponsored fighter) will be on the card but it would not be surprising if he made it back in time. Regardless, the UFC-XBox 360 partnership is one reason why Jon Jones was put on this card (as well as it being in MMA crazed Canada) to defend his title. It also is another experiment in finding other platforms for the UFC to air PPVs.

Yahoo! Sports reports that the UFC may hold two events in one night according to UFC president Dana White. The UFC would rely on multiple UFC teams to logistically handle events on the same night.

While promoting UFC 139 in San Jose earlier this week, White let it be known of his vision for two UFC events in one night.  “When we go to Japan next year, we are going to be putting on a show at the same time in Las Vegas,” he said.

White indicated that the UFC would be running multiple shows in the future. However, White did not elaborate on the details.

MMA Junkie reports that the UFC would have the capability to have two teams cover each event. Former WEC head Reed Harris hosted the UFC on Versus 6 pre-event press conference and touted the fact that the UFC’s multi-team approach makes hosting two events in one night possible.

There is still the question of airing both shows. The UFC wants to air both live and same-day-delayed shows in prime time slots. UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi is an example of this. While the PPV played in its usual prime time slot, it was offered live during the day.

Payout Perspective:

PPV saturation or a forward looking plan for global expansion of the UFC? At this point, holding a show in the US and in Japan seems to be hedging its bets. Simply put, if the Japan show does not go well, it could be overshadowed by the US show. And if Japan does well, then that’s the story. But, it seems like the plan is to expand the brand globally. The question is whether holding two shows in one night is too much. Will the UFC have two PPVs in one night or will it have one event free and the other on PPV? For an average UFC fan on a budget, purchasing two events in one month is expensive. Will we see a day where we may pay over $100 for one night of PPVs?  The other question is whether its too much. There is not much being made about the fact that in three straight weeks, there will be three UFC title defenses. It seems like it may be too much for the casual UFC fan as there is lukewarm interest in UFC on Versus 6 and much skepticism in the PPV buy rate for UFC 136. Time will tell to see how the UFC executes two events in one night.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. In the main event, Jon Jones defeated Quentin “Rampage” Jackson to retain the Light Heavyweight title.

Jones stops Rampage

Jon Jones handled Rampage Jackson to retain his Light Heavyweight title. Its becoming apparent that Jones’ length is his greatest attribute. Jackson looked motivated, in shape and had the correct game plan to deal with Jones. However, Jones was ready for Jackson and it was apparent that Jones could do whatever he wanted with Jackson. The 3rd round after the bell throw of Jackson and eventual choke served as notice that Jones is here to stay.

As for Jackson, it was weird for a loser of a bout to call out someone else. But, Rampage vs. Shogun Rua would help a UFC Japan card that has its share of skeptics.

Kos KOs Hughes

The fight was entertaining until the last few seconds of the first round when Koscheck poured it on and KO’d Hughes. For Hughes, the KO is the second of its kind as BJ Penn did the same to him last year. Its hard to say if Hughes will or should retire, but for a Hall of Famer to be knocked unconscious like that is not good for a legacy. For Koscheck, it was a nice return from December’s injury. The win should put him back into the welterweight title picture.

Attendance and Gate

Although not verified by the Colorado state athletic commission, Dana White announced the attendance at the Pepsi Center as 16,344 for a gate of $2 million. (h/t MMA Junkie)

Bonuses

MMA Junkie reports that the following fighters were awarded $75,000 each for their fights.

Fight of the Night – Jones vs. Jackson
KO of the Night – Koscheck
Submission of the Night – Nate Diaz
Diaz displayed his jiu jitsu proficiency in submitting Takanori Gomi. It was a textbook transition. Hopefully, in a push for an exciting fight, the UFC does not stray from its roots.

Promotion of the Fight

UFC Fight Night 25 featured a Jones-Rampage head to head debate. The same was done on ESPN. I have to say I am not a fan of these head to head debates. I know its supposed to draw heat but it seems forced.

More and more, UFC fighters are getting their chance on late night television. Jones and Rampage on Jimmy Kimmel to sell the fight.

It was a little weird to see the two sitting so comfortably close to each other and sharing their couch with Dr. Phil.

Press Conference

The Jones-Rampage press conference had its share of funny moments. The best being the picture of Rampage clowning Jon Jones’ “stare into the distance” when they both did the staredown at the initial press conference.

The drama of the alleged “spy” in Rampage’s camp brought some intrigue to the matchup. But, most people were interested in the matchup regardless of the “spy”.

Sponsorships

MMA Elite, Harley Davidson, MMA Authentics, Edge, Musclepharm, Xyience, Toyo Tires were all in the Octagon with Bud Light taking the center again. Video game Gears of War3 (for XBox 360) signage was also present in the Octagon. It also was the presenting sponsor for UFC 135. Noticeably a lot of different sponsors in the Octagon this time around.

Musclepharm – Not only did it announce its new partnership with the UFC earlier in the week, but its gym was featured during the UFC Countdown show as Rampage trained for the fight there. It also was the spot where Rampage discovered the “spy” from the Jones camp. Notwithstanding the implication that a MP exec was a spy, it was a good week of activation for MP. The MP gym was adorned with its memorable logo.

The US Marines maintained its Keys to Victory segment featuring Koscheck and Hughes.

FighterxFashion has a good rundown of the walk out wear from UFC 135 including Rampage “chains”. Just in time for Halloween…or your next street fight (j/k, I hope).

Interesting that Jon Jones did not have any special brand activation with any of his sponsors. If I missed it, let me know.

Odds and ends

- The high altitude coupled with the Heavyweight match-ups lead to two matches that slowed down considerably as the match progressed. Maybe some booking info to learn from in the future.

- Whenever Rashard Evans steps into the Octagon with a suit, he receives boos. It reminds me a little of Ric Flair. The pinstripes did add to the “heel” status he received last night. Notwithstanding, it was a little awkward for Evans after the stare-down with Jones since it looked like he wanted to leave but Rampage was still in the Octagon. It was like he was trapped a bit. It was a good spot but

- Don’t mean to talk about pro wrestling too much, but did Ben Rothwell come out to the Monday Night Raw theme?

- Did anyone notice Rampage’s corner-man whisper in his ear prior to his Rogan post-fight interview. It was like he reminded him to challenge Shogun in Japan.

UPDATE re PPV Buys

MMA Supremacy did an informal poll on the anticipated PPV buys for this pay per view. With Rampage, Jones, Hughes and Koscheck at the top of the card, many believed this to be between 500K-700K in buys with a smattering of people believing it to be 300-400K in buys. It will be interesting to see. Although Jones is the biggest rising star in the UFC, he has yet to become a PPV draw. The UFC hopes that this will change soon.

After the UFC 135 press conference yesterday, Dana White told reports that Georges St. Pierre is the biggest PPV star in MMA today. This, despite the numbers reflecting that Brock Lesnar should hold that distinction.

White did state that GSP’s fight style has changed. Nevertheless, White believes he’s the top draw regardless. White might be pushing this statement and its likely to hype GSP’s upcoming fight. But, the numbers reflect that Brock Lesnar is the top MMA draw when it comes to PPV.

Via the Blue Book:

Brock Lesnar

UFC 121 vs. Velasquez – 1,050,000

UFC 116 vs. Carwin – 1,160,000

UFC 100 vs. Mir – 1,600,000

UFC 91 vs. Couture – 1,010,000

UFC 87 vs. Herring – 625K

UFC 81 vs. Mir – 600K

GSP

UFC 129 vs. Shields – 800K

UFC 124 vs. Koscheck – 785K

UFC 111 vs. Hardy – 710K

UFC 100 vs. Alves – 1,600,000

UFC 94 vs. BJ Penn – 920K

UFC 87 vs. Jon Fitch – 625K

UFC 82 vs. Serra (GSP regains title) – 530K

The two have shared the same card twice: UFC 87 and UFC 100.

Payout Perspective:

Looking at the numbers, Brock Lesnar is the king of PPV buy rates for the UFC. We should see a huge spike in PPV buys as he takes on Alistair Overeem at the end of the year. But, I believe White is making the point that GSP is the standard for MMA. Definitely, losing to Matt Serra has caused a change in his style and while he is winning, he is not finishing off opponents. Could the GSP decisions reflect the PPV buy rate between the two fighters? Or, is it once again the fact that fight fans favor the heavyweights? In case you were wondering, Anderson Silva has not surpassed a 1 million PPV buys in any of his main events. The highest buy rate for The Spider was 725K last February against Vitor Belfort.

LA Times reports that Alistair Overeem has signed with the UFC and will be taking on Brock Lesnar on the December 30th NYE show being held in Las Vegas.

“Brock is a big name, a dangerous guy, and this is a dream matchup,” Overeem told The Times on Tuesday, just after signing a standard UFC fight contract in the office of Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta. “Brock’s a big guy, an exciting wrestler with his takedowns.
…
“I want to see this fight myself. Overall, I’m a different fighter. A striker, athletic, big. These are going to be two big trucks going at it on a collision course.”

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Payout Perspective:

Some notes from the announcement:

- The fight will be a 5-round non-title bout (PPV event). Overeem was stripped of the Strikeforce HW Title when he was released from Strikeforce just a few weeks ago.

- Alistair Overeem signed a multiple-fight standard contract, which means he is exclusive to the UFC and will not be allowed to participate in Kickboxing or Golden Glory events.

- It is expected that the winner of this bout will challenge the winner of Cain Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos for the HW title.

- Overeem was offered a title shot against the Velasquez/JDS winner but Overeem didn’t want to wait that long.

- This event will take place on a Friday night, outside of the norm for the promotion who usually holds PPV events on Saturday nights.

- The UFC was looking to run the NYE show from Abu Dhabi this year from that same Friday night, but instead moved the event to Las Vegas on that same day.

- Yesterday night, the UFC announced that they would be heading back to Japan on February 26, 2012 and would be holding their event at Saitama Super Arena, which will be configured to seat 20,000 fans.  Alistair Overeem would be be one of their biggest draws if they could get him on that card along with “Kid” Yamamoto and Yoshihiro Akiyama to name a few.  Yushin Okami could also be used, but will have to bounce back after a crushing defeat to Anderson Silva in Brazil at UFC 134.

- With the addition of Lesnar vs Overeem, the UFC will most likely host a 1 million PPV buy event this year.  The last time they went through a year without hitting one was back in 2007. Last year, the UFC hosted 3 1 million PPV buy events, two which were headlined by Brock Lesnar.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective! This week we look at the much-maligned UFC 133 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the main event, Rashad Evans took out Tito Ortiz to cement his spot as the number one contender in the Light Heavyweight division.

Evans knees Ortiz for win

Rashad Evans looked phenomenal and displayed no signs of rust after a 14 month layoff. Tito Ortiz looked good too but Evans was too much for Tito and a knee to the chest ended Tito’s night.  This was a fight that no one really lost. Evans secured his title shot and Ortiz spun his loss as “taking one for the team.”

Belfort takes care of Akiyama

Vitor Belfort made quick work of Yoshihiro Akiyama as he knocked out Akiyama in the first round. An impressive showing coming off of being KO’d by Anderson Silva. Interesting the finish came when Akiyama attempted and missed a front kick similar to that of Silva.

Ebersole KO’s Hallman and speedo

While most thought that Brian Ebersole’s “harrow” would be the quirky story of this match, it was Dennis Hallman wearing a speedo that convinced Dana White to award Ebersol a special KO bonus as well as banning all speedos from UFC competition. When I saw Hallman’s short shorts I immediately thought of what boxer Bernard Hopkins was thinking. As some may know, BHop used to hate MMA until the pubicity came to Philadelphia. He did get off one of the best takes about the sport on the Jim Rome show when he said he would lose to any MMA guy since he had notfought like that since “he was in prison or a kid.”

Ebersole received a “special” bonus as a result of his KO. For better or worse, the short shorts received mainstream notoriety from Deadspin and ESPN’s Page 2 created a list of “Worst Looks in Sports History” in honor of Hallman’s shorts.

Attendance and gate

11,583 were in attendance for a gate of $1.5 million according to MMA Junkie. The number of complimentary tickets were not provided. In comparison, 2009’s UFC 101 was a sellout with 17,411 in attendance for a gate of $3.55 million. The event, held in the same building as UFC 133, featured Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin.

Bonuses

MMA Junkie reports the following bonuses for UFC 133. There were no submissions, so no submissions of the night were awarded. However, White awarded Ebersole a $70,000 bonus for getting Hallman’s speedos off of PPV. Other $70,000 award winners included:

Fight of the Night – Evans vs. Ortiz

KO of the Night – Vito Belfort

PR for UFC 133

Rashad Evans workouts were featured on Yahoo! Sports. Evans and NFLers Maurice Jones-Drew and Larry Fitzgerald were featured in a weekly series on elite athlete workouts.

Many Philadelphia celebrities were in attendance including Charles Barkley and Bernard Hopkins. Interesting that Hopkins was in attendance considering that he had bad mouthed MMA for some time.

White and Ortiz appeared on the Jim Rome Show. Similar to NASCAR, the Rome show has embraced  the sport by having UFC fighters on as well as talking about it on his show.

White gave away tickets for UFC 133 through its #Hunt4UFC twitter contest where White sent out tweets to locations of where to go if fans wanted free tickets.

Sponsorships

SafeAuto Insurance sponsored its usual band of UFC fighters as well as a  contest, “VIP at the UFC.” The brand activation integrated social media into its fan contest. When fans “liked” the SafeAuto Facebook page and filled out a contest form they had the opportunity to win a trip to UFC 133.

Tapout had a similar contest for UFC 133 in which followers either liked the Tapout Facebook page and tweet out “#TapoutTickets” in order to qualify. The winner was announced during the appearance of Skyscrape and Punkass on The MMA Hour last Monday.

According to Bloody Elbow, Rory MacDonald’s fight banner never made it behind him before introductions. A faux pas if you want to keep sponsors. Here it is:

Training Mask made a big splash with the sponsorship of many of the fighters on the card including Rashad Evans. And, it also sponsored the front of Hallman’s shorts. Training Mask put out what seemed to be a tongue in cheek tweet about its sponsorship of Hallman stating that it has no control of what its fighters wear.

Middle Easy sponsored Brian Ebersole. It was interesting to note that at the end of the fight, Joe Rogan referred to Ebersole’s “Bloody Elbow” after pummeling Dennis Hallman. Coincidence?

The fighter fashions are detailed in this post. Notably, Evans sported a white Jaco track suit top with a subtle Jaco logo. Yet, he wore a Tapout shirt post-fight. Nam Phan wore a gi that he took off in the entryway so that his t-shirt sponsor, Throwdown, got the visibility during the walkout.

Conan 3D had the fighter checkpoint sponsorship. Fortunately, no interview with its star this time around.

Harley Davidson, Dodge, Gamefly.com, Xyience, Edge, Boost Mobile and Bud Light had the center of the ring.

Post-UFC 133 Headlines

Evans vs. Jones/Rampage Super Bowl Weekend 2012.  Book it. Nobody get hurt.

Rory MacDonald. Probably the most impressive young fighter out there. It will be interesting to see what fights are ahead of the Canadian.

Tito Ortiz. Although he lost, he put on a good fight and it didn’t look like he was mailing it in. He’s regained respect with the UFC and will likely have a fight or two left with the company.

Despite many alterations to the card, UFC 133 had some entertaining, albeit short fights. If you wanted to see knockouts, UFC 133 gave it to you.

Odds and ends:

Did Shane Victorino help promote UFC 133 by starting a bench-clearing brawl Friday night?

Does everyone have Beats by Dre headphones that Evans wore at weigh-ins and walkout?

Joe Rogan mentioned Diamond MMA, a company specializing in compression shorts that hold cups in place to prevent groin shots, during the fights giving the company some good publicity.

The main card fights ended with almost an hour to spare. This happens when there are 4 KOs during the PPV. This was a night with lots of filler fights. It was a good chance to show the Facebook fights live.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we look at UFC 132 from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The featured bout was Dominick Cruz defending his Bantamweight title againt Urijah Faber.

Cruz defeats Faber in entertaining matchup

Welcome to the UFC Dominick Cruz. A back and forth bout saw Cruz take control of Faber in the end to earn his first UFC win and successful title defense. As we discussed here, the UFC will need to start actively promoting its Bantamweight champ. An example of this can be found in last week’s print edition of the Sports Business Journal. The UFC has a full page ad on the back page were it shows its current champions: Velasquez, Jones, GSP and Edgar. It neglects to include Jose Aldo and Cruz. Last night’s action was fast-paced and entertaining. The UFC can get behind the lighter divisions and sell this type of action. We will see what happens in the future. Certainly, a Faber win would have made life easier marketing this division.

As for Faber, a rematch could happen sooner than later. But, he has lost his last four shots at a title. How many more chances can he get?

Axe Murderer KO’d by Leben, career over?

As predicted, the Wanderlei Silva-Chris Leben matchup featured a big knockout. It was a little surprising that it happened in the first minutes of the fight but Chris Leben took a couple haymakers and returned his own to KO Silva. Dana White essentially stated that Silva’s career is over in the UFC. Similar to Chuck Liddell, Silva will have to have someone tell him to stop fighting. Although he has an exciting fight style, the years are catching up to him and a body just can’t sustain that many shots.

Ortiz upsets Bader, keeps job

The gravedigger celebration was brought out once again as Tito Ortiz submitted Ryan Bader in the upset of the night. For as much heat Ortiz receives, the arena seemed to be at its loudest. Bad news for Bader as he will need to regroup after two straight losses.

Attendance and gate

MMA Junkie reports that UFC 132’s attendance was at 12, 947 for a gate of $2.3 million. The numbers are in line with its other Vegas shows this year:  UFC 125 (12,753, $2.57M) and 130 (12,874, $2.174M) (h/t MMA Supremacy).

Bonuses

MMA Junkie reports the bonuses for UFC 132. Each received $75K.

Fight of the Night: Cruz vs. Faber
KO of the night: Carlos Condit
Sub of the night: Tito Ortiz

There were several KO of the night candidates including Chris Leben, Melivn Guillard and Rafael dos Anjos.

UFC Programming

Spike TV debuted the UFC’s Countdown show during the day Wednesday of fight week instead of its regular primetime spot. While subsequent airings were shown at night, it could be seen as passive aggressive programming as a result of the looming hole the UFC will leave Spike when/if it goes to another network.

Sponsorships

Bud Light Lime, MusclePharm, Dodge, TapouT, Harley Davidson and Xyience were in the Octagon. Bud Light Lime branding utilized the lime color as the ring girls donned lime attire at the weigh-ins and during the PPV. Also at the weigh-ins Bud Light Lime owned the space in front of the scale fo the weigh-in.

In the leadup to UFC 132, Form Athletics, a company co-founded by Faber, held an autograph session featuring Anthony Pettis and Mark Munoz and other UFC fighters to promote Faber’s main event. Pettis and Munoz also appeared at a Las Vegas ABC Store to sign autographs on behalf of its sponsor Xyience.

The movie Conan took over the Harley Davidson check point. It also made a mistake by having its star, Jason Momoa, try to hype the film. The Goldberg-Momoa interview was as awkward as the man-hug at its conclusion.

Matt Wiman sported a PETA-inspired sponsor on his shorts: Meet your Meat.com.

Twitter trends

Notably, Faber trended during and after UFC 132 but Dominick Cruz’s name did not. . Also trending were “Crippler” for Chris Leben and “Siver” for Dennis Siver. (h/t MMA Supremacy)

Also, Justin Bieber was at the fights and posted it on twitter. Pretty good  mainstream publicity considering Bieber has over 10 million followers.

Post-UFC 132 Headlines

-More small guys? Saturday’s main event showcased the reason why fighters 155 and under should be on more PPV cards. While most are relatively unknown, hopefully Jose Aldo, Mark Hominick, Brian Bowles, Might Mouse Johnson and Dominick Cruz will become regulars on PPV cards.

-Melvin Guillard looks like he has resurrected his career. The Young Assassin looks poised to make a run at the Lightweight title

-Losing Faber. Urijah Faber is one of the most marketable faces in the UFC. His looks and athleticism have earned him mainstream appeal from the likes of Rosie O’Donnell and Jim Rome. The UFC would have loved to see Faber win the title as it would lend notoriety to the division. Despite losing, he still can be the face for the small guy in the UFC. It will be interesting to see how the UFC will book Faber because an upset loss in his next fight could be damaging .

Odds and ends

- Watching the replay, you can see Faber’s muay thai coach, Master Thong, peek over the shoulder of Bruce Buffer as he was announcing the judge’s scores. He saw the score before it was announced.

-Dominick Cruz was awarded his blue belt after his title defense. Cruz has to be the toughest blue belt around. Ironically, Faber was awarded his brown belt after his last fight against Eddie Wineland.

-If we saw Wanderlei Silva’s last fight in the UFC, someone must pick up his entrance music.

A second straight week of solid fights from the UFC. The night saw some great action, a W for Tito Ortiz and a great five round fight from Faber and Cruz.