MMA Universe

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.

UFC 132 will be the first PPV headlining the Bantamweight division since the UFC-WEC merger. The big question will be whether or not Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz will be able to attract the UFC audience.

The matchup has some heat considering it is for Cruz’s UFC-WEC Bantamweight title. In addition, there is bad blood between the two and Cruz is looking to avenge a lost to Faber. The Countdown show did a great job in detailing their history. Unfortunately, the debut ran on Spike TV during the day Wednesday. Regardless, the big question will be whether viewers buy the PPV?

You could call Faber “Mr. WEC” as he was the face of the organization prior to its merger with the UFC. Many of the big WEC events occurred in Sacramento, Faber’s hometown, and many of the main events involved “The California Kid.”

Taking a quick glance at Faber’s draw in the WEC:

WEC 52: Faber vs. Mizugaki: Versus rating – 570K

WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber: WEC’s PPV – 175K buys

WEC 41: Brown vs. Faber: Versus rating – 1.3 million

WEC 36: Faber vs. Brown: Versus rating – 497K

WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver: Versus rating – 1.5 million

Compared to Faber, the champion does not have the same appeal. Of course, he has had limited chances:

WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez 2 – Versus rating – 316K

WEC 47: Bowles vs. Cruz – Versus rating – 373K

Prior to the WEC merger, few lightweight fighters found themselves at the top of a UFC PPV card. Aside from BJ Penn, the Lightweight division does not have the following as other heavier divisions. The last UFC PPV with lightweights as headliners was January 1^st when Frankie Edgar defended his Lightweight title against Gray Maynard. While the contest was an exciting 5 round war, it did not equate into a high PPV buy rate. Notably, half of the people in attendance were comped tickets. Obviously, there were factors which could explain the less-than stellar buy rate (college football bowl games, recovering from New Year’s Eve) and comped tickets (hotels buying tickets for its high limit players that came for NYE).

UFC 132 will take place during a holiday weekend but shouldn’t experience the same distractions as UFC 125.  The only competition for viewers would be the heavyweight boxing match between David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko but since the fight occurs during the day (the fight is in Germany), UFC 132 has the fight community’s attention.

132’s undercard should support the main event as it provides some compelling matchups. The Leben-Silva matchup should be a slugfest and its almost guaranteed that one man will be knocked out. Also, fans may see the very last fight in the UFC for Tito Ortiz.

Payout Perspective:

It will be interesting to see the buy rate for the PPV. Despite Cruz being the champ, most fans are cheering for Faber. Faber is a marketable figure as exemplified by many of his endorsement deals which include a mainstream ad campaign for K-Swiss and regular appearances on the Jim Rome radio show. Cruz is a relative unknown and if he defeats Faber, the UFC will need to ratchet up the marketing efforts to sell Cruz against other bantamweights. Certainly there are other quality fighters in his division, but aside from Faber, could the casual viewer name one?

With the infusion of the WEC lighter divisions and the introduction of the 125 pound division, one can only wonder whether these divisions will ever headline a PPV. Or, will they just be support for a PPV card. It could be that the divisions will be used for Fight Nights and other televised events with the UFC’s next TV partner (or its own network).

Welcome to a special edition of Payout Perspective as we take a look at Saturday’s fight between Sugar Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Nevada.

Pacquiao dominates Mosley

A simple equation can explain Saturday night’s performance:
Pacquiao >Mosley = Joshua Clottey

Although Mosley told everyone that he was going to take the fight to Pacquiao, he looked more like Joshua Clottey throughout the fight: backing up and unable to use combinations.

While each fighter scored knockdowns, Mosley’s was more of a push than a punch. This only angered Pacquiao who attempted to end the fight in the last two rounds although he was ahead by a huge margin. Whatever you think of the strategy, Pacquiao does not lie when he says he wants the fans to see a good show.

The crowd booed Mosley’s effort and the sportsmanship each fighter possessed as it seemed that the fighters touched gloves at each pause in the action.

It looks like Pacquiao has a November 2011 date set with…Juan Manuel Marquez. This may be the most competitive bout for Pacquiao in a couple years…or we may get another older fighter finding away to escape a barrage of Pacquiao combinations.

Unlike other boxing PPVs, this card had two exciting undercards. First, we had the return of Kelly Pavlik in an entertaining fight against Alfonso Lopez. Next, Jorge Arce defeated Wilfredo Vasquez, Jr. when Vasquez’s corner threw in the towel. According to the scorecards, Vasquez may have had the narrow lead. I was under the impression that the corner cannot stop the fight be throwing in the towel (see Yuri Foreman vs. Miguel Cotto). Regardless, it was an entertaining fight.

Attendance and Gate
As with every Pacquiao fight, it was a sellout. This time 16,412 fans went to the MGM Grand. Dan Rafael of ESPN tweeted that the final gate was $8,882,600. In comparison, Rafael pointed out Pac-Mosley was the 14th biggest gate in Nevada history but $3.85 million more than the #1 UFC gate in Nevada history.

The weigh-ins garnered 4,000 people and turned away another 2,000. Who says boxing is dead? Well, maybe its just the Pacquiao effect?

Twitter
Pacquiao, Jinkee, Mosley, Jim Gray and (undercard fighter Jorge) Arce all trended worldwide throughout the night. Also, Mosley’s girlfriend, Bella Gonzalez trended on twitter.

Showtime and estimated buys
This was the first boxing PPV put on by Showtime since Bob Arum left longtime partner HBO. Similar to HBO’s 24/7 series, it aired Fight Camp 360, a four-part series featuring the camps of Mosley and Pacquiao. While the episodes ran on CBS and Showtime, ratings-wise, it did not fare well. Despite low ratings for Fight Camp 360, it served its purpose in promoting the match.

The CBS exposure was one of the reasons Arum chose Showtime over HBO. Fight Camp 360 aired the day of the Final Four and in prime time a week before the fight. It also aired commercials throughout CBS programming.

Bob Arum told the NY Times that he expects the buys for Saturday’s fight to be roughly around 1.2 million. This would be the same as Pacquiao’s fight with Antonio Margarito. While this may not be as many buys as Arum would have wanted, the opportunity to get his product in front of more eyes on network television and for it to one day be back on CBS would be an ideal goal.

Sponsors
The main sponsors for Saturday night were O’Reilly Auto Parts, Mortal Kombat (also at UFC 129), AT&T and Smart – the leading wireless service provider in the Philippines. Nike also was prominent sponsor. As always, Tecate was big on fight night and leading up to the fight. It was able to do more this Pacquiao fight than others since the fight was announced sooner than past Pacquiao fights.

With the announcement (or soon to be) of Marquez-Pacquiao III, expect Tecate to make a huge promotional push for November 2011.

With the restructured Pacquiao management team, Hewlett Packard signed a deal with Pacquiao to endorse its new line of tablet computers. The NY Times had an interesting piece on the woman behind it all. Hopefully this works out for Team Pacquiao. Did anyone else notice that after Manny’s post-fight interview he ended with the talking point of checking out his web site, mpboxing.com?

Top Rank offers fight online
Top Rank signed a deal with NeuLion, Inc. to offer the fight online. NeuLion is the same company that worked with the UFC to upgrade UFC.tv. In addition, the Top Rank web site offered other streaming in lead-up to the fight.  Its a step in the right direction for boxing to reach out to a younger demographic.

Odds and Ends
Before I forget, did any other DirecTV subscribers notice that if you ordered UFC 129 online, you could not watch on other televisions in your home as you normally could.  For Mosley-Pacquiao, I was able to watch on multiple televisions when ordering online.

The Showtime broadcast crew was decent, although the HBO crew of Lampley, Kellerman, Steward, et al is better. Gus Johnson is still a better basketball announcer than anything. He did reference MMA when describing one of Pacquiao’s punches as a “Superman Punch.”

Jim Gray or Larry Merchant?

Best dialogue during the Fight Camp 360 series was when Manny Pacquiao told former champ Manny Tapia that he liked the “purse” better than the “belt”. Referring to the payout rather than his championship belt.

UPDATE – 5/11/11

Forgot to include EA Sports’ participation which included this odd interaction between Teddy Atlas and video game likenesses of Pacquiao and Mosley. EA was promoting its game Fight Night Champion.

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MMA Junkie reports that Top Rank Boxing is partnering with NeuLion, Inc. to offer fight fans an enhanced online PPV stream. NeuLion, a company specializing in live and on demand video via the internet, is the same company that has worked with the UFC.

This past February, the UFC entered into a working relationship with NeuLion to upgrade its UFC.tv web site. Todd duBoef, Top Rank’s president, stated that boxing is adapting to new media and believes that boxing and MMA have room to grow online.

duBoef told MMA Junkie:

“Because they [MMA] weren’t getting traditional media coverage early on, I think MMA was at the forefront for their sport at understanding the new-media perspective of where the fans are, who’s engaged there, who’s dialed in there, who’s interacting there. I think we’ve all learned a lot from seeing how that fanbase works.”

Boxing enthusiasts will have access to these things and more with the Pacquaio vs. Mosley stream, which is being offered at Top Rank Boxing’s official website, as well as Yahoo! Sports’ boxing page, for $54.99.

In lead-up to tonight’s fight, Top Rank has streamed online a Manny Pacquiao workout, press conference, the weigh-ins among other events. In the past, Top Rank, in collaboration with Yahoo! began airing undercard fights online. But this will be the first time that the main event will be shown online.

Payout Perspective:

Top Rank’s move online validates what MMA fans already knew: the UFC is ahead of the game when it comes to new media. The move by Top Rank makes sense considering the perception that boxing is losing ground to MMA in the world of combat sports. While it is believed that boxing’s demographic is older than the MMA target audience, a claim duBoef refutes in the article, it will be interesting to see how many fight fans pay for the online version of the fight tonight.

Welcome to the second part of UFC 129’s Payout Perspective.  

 PPV Buy Rate trending at estimated 800K-900K (Updated 5/5)

Dave Metzler at the Wrestling Observer (subscription required) stated that the trending buy rate for UFC 129 will be between 800-900K. It was estimated to be around 1 million buys earlier. The explanation between trending numbers and estimate numbers is here.

While an early estimate had PPV buys at 1 million, the 800-900K range is not bad considering GSP’s last showing in December grabbed 785K. The last 3 PPVs going over 1 million was Lesnar-Velasquez last October, Lesnar-Carwin in July and Evans-Jackson last May. UFC 129 was a strong card at the top with GSP and Couture. It also had a title fight between Aldo and Hominick as well as former WEC lightweight champ Benson Henderson.

UFC Programming

UFC Primetime Series

In addition to the traditional UFC Countdown show, the UFC ran its “Primetime” series. The three-part series featuring the fight camps of GSP and Shields did not receive big ratings as Primetimes of past, but it was on more channels than past Primetimes. The big news was that UFC Primetime showed up unannounced on ESPN2 the same night the second episode ran on Spike TV. As fight week came to a close, the UFC Primetime and Countdown series appeared on ION, Versus, ESPN2 and Fuel TV. Certainly the goal was not receiving a big rating for one showing, but to have multiple eyeballs on the programming on multiple networks.

UPDATED:  Here is the breakdown of ratings for the UFC Primetime series:

Episode 1:  610,000 viewers

Episode 2: 475,000 viewers

Episode 3:  384,000 viewers

These numbers are well below prior Primetime series. The low numbers are a little surprising since prior Primetimes featuring GSP have done well.

The UFC Countdown show on 4/26 did 390,000 viewers. Pretty bad although the first running of the show was on a Tuesday at midnight ET/9PM PT.

UFC Prelims scored a strong 1.5 million viewers even though it aired an hour earlier.

Promoting UFC 129

The initial promotion of the event featured GSP vs. Shields. However, the key driver for the marketing of 129 was the 55,000 fans that attended the event. The UFC amended the opening of its PPV to mention the historic nature of the event.

The growth of the UFC and the 55,000 number was a key talking point in all of the media interviews that Dana White participated in for UFC 129. It is a pretty big deal to see how much the UFC has grown since its beginnings. It will be interesting to see how much farther the UFC can take MMA.

In addition to the GSP/Shields and 55K promos, the UFC included a pretty nice spot including Machida-Couture and Aldo-Hominick. It was a takeoff on an action movie trailer entitled, “The Cast of UFC 129.”

 

UFC Central on UFC.tv

The UFC introduced UFC Central as a way to attract more viewers online to UFC.tv.  UFC Central introduced a pre-fight and post-fight show for fans. It also gave fans the option to purchase the PPV online and take advantage of the differing camera angles of UFC.tv.  Prior to the ending of the PPV, it segued into the post-fight show on its broadcast to give viewers the opportunity to move over to their computers to watch online.

Time Change

Although moving up the PPV an hour, it did not seem to affect buys for the PPV (based on the trending buy rate) and the ratings for the UFC Prelims. We do not have information on the Facebook live streams, but we may assume that it received its share of viewers as the fights on Facebook were very entertaining. While it’s not expected that the UFC will receive 1 million buys, it appears that fans got the word that the PPV started an hour early. 

More Sponsors

The usual suspects ruled the Octagon including BSN, Harley Davidson, Xyience, Toyo Tires and Bud Light in the center.

Tapout was the presenting sponsor as well as on the mat in the Octagon

It was a nice touch having Mortal Kombat sponsoring the Tale of the Tape for the main event.

Interesting that GSP included his twitter handle on his Affliction shorts. I can only recall Rampage Jackson having his twitter account that prevalent on his shorts. It would be interesting to see how the GSP brand monetizes its twitter account.

Brand Activation

Apply online to be a UFC fighter at Jobbi.com

The UFC offered people the chance to apply to be a fighter online with UFC sponsor Jobbi.com. Even though I believe the chances of applying and being picked to fight in the Octagon are slim, it’s a novel way for the UFC and Jobbi to work together.

Xyience Ultimate Access with Jon Jones 

It was interesting that this contest was promoted prior to Jones winning the title which made the contest much more attractive. The crux of the promotion was that two fans would attend UFC 129 and then hang out with Jon Jones and two Xyience models.

Round 5 offers GSP collectible and chance to be a figure

Round 5 gave fans attending the UFC Fan Expo the chance to purchase a limited edition GSP figure. It also gave purchasers of the GSP figure an opportunity to have their likeness made into a figure.

MMA Elite new sports drink

The clothing brand company rolled out its new sports drink at the UFC Fan Expo. BJ Penn made an appearance at the booth to promote the drink.

More Odds and Ends

Super 7 appear together for first time

The seven current UFC Champions appeared on stage for the first time ever. It was a nice touch by the UFC for all of the champs to gather together. The gathering gave look at the present and glimpse into the future of the UFC.

UFC introduces UFCLatino.com

Not only did the UFC launch UFC Central during the runup to UFC 129, but it launched UFCLatino.com. Catering to the Latino community, it will feature the likes of Cain Velasquez and Dominick Cruz on its site.

Couture comments spur thoughts of fighter’s union

In an interview with ESPN, Randy Couture stated that he’d like to see fighters with health care and some sort of pension after their career in the Octagon ends. Although Couture stated that he would be against a union, he believed that a compromise could be worked out with Zuffa.

 Zuffa sued

A local convention operator sued Zuffa for its UFC Fan Expo mark. Despite the lawsuit, the fan expo went on without a hitch.

Overall, UFC 129 was a great card.  While some debate the quality of the main event, the overall product receives a thumbs up. From the Facebook fights until the main event, the quality of fights were entertaining and exciting.  It seemed like the fighters stepped up their game for the moment.  Airing all of the fights on Facebook, Spike TV or PPV was a good choice by the UFC. For such a monumental event, all of the fights deserved to be seen.

Welcome to another addition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 129 held at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The three and a half hour PPV set records in attendance, gate and bonuses. It was the organization’s biggest event in its history.

In the main event, Georges St. Pierre outclassed Jake Shields to retain the welterweight title. Canadian Mark Hominick may have gained the most in a loss to Jose Aldo. Randy Couture was retired by Lyoto Machida with a front kick. Steven Seagal had his hands (or should we say feet) all over this one.

GSP downs Shields

In the highly anticipated matchup, St. Pierre stuffed all of Shields’ takedown attempts and defended the welterweight title despite losing vision in his left eye. At no point did Shields have an opportunity to use his dreaded jiu jitsu. It was a GSP-dominated match although many have criticized GSP’s performance.

Aldo downs Hominick

Mark Hominick fought valiantly with a huge hematoma on his head but lost to a superior Jose Aldo. Despite Joe Rogan selling the 5^th round, it did not seem like Aldo was in any danger. We learned after the fight that Aldo may have been sick. During the telecast, Rogan surmised that it may have been the repercussions of a bad weight cut. 

Many believed that the fight would end due to the hematoma, but the ringside doctor determined that he was fine to continue. This actually brought praise from Dana White after the fight.

Seagal strikes again  

First Anderson Silva, now Lyoto Machida. Machida used a front kick reminiscent of the Karate Kid to knock out Randy Couture. The Natural was gracious in defeat in what looks like his last fight. Machida claims that the kick should be attributed to his training with Steven Seagal.

Sponsorship Watch

Due to the enormity of fans at UFC 129 and the many ordering the PPV, we saw more mainstream sponsors participating at UFC 129.

The Hamilton Tiger Cats sponsored Mark Hominick. Unfortunately for the Ti-Cats, the hematoma on Hominick’s head was so huge; he could not properly put on his cap during the post-fight.

Amor All sponsored Fightmetric’s Fantasy MMA Tournament on Rogers Sportsnet.

Sailun Tires sponsored Kyle Watson and Vladimir Matsushenko.

Dodge sponsored the UFC Fights on Facebook. A sponsor on The Ultimate Fighter, it’s nice to see Dodge having more of a presence. For the UFC, having a sponsor for its Facebook fights is the exact reason for airing fights on Facebook.

Blue Grace Logisitcs, a transportation, logistics and technology provider, represented Ben Henderson and indicated that it would sponsor more fighters in the future.

1-800-Radiator was the sponsor for the front of Jake Shields’ shorts and DC Solar Systems sponsored the back. As I stated in the UFC 128 Payout Perspective, the last two fighters that won titles had tool manufacturers as its sponsor. DC Solar Systems is a renewable energy system company.  Sorry, no go.

Post-UFC 129 Headlines

GSP vs. Silva Nick Diaz next?

Dana White seemed open to Diaz fight although the underlying issue would be the demise of Strikeforce. Having its champion fight the UFC champion would be a great PPV fight. Diaz would sign on considering it would mean a big payday which he craves. For GSP, it’s another challenge in his chosen weight division. If you can take anything from his comments after the Shields fight, he was hesitant to commit to a fight at 185. Without going further, GSP seemed the only way he would fight Silva would be at a catchweight lower than 185.

What’s next for Jake Shields?

Two UFC fights and two disappointing efforts for the man brought to the UFC to dethrone GSP. UFC Primetime and Countdown really helped UFC fans get to know Shields. He seems like an all-around good guy. But, one thing not seen from the UFC Primetime or Countdown shows was practicing takedowns. GSP is world-class, but Shields lacked the skill to take down GSP and perform his famed jiu jitsu. Maybe Shields takes an in-between fight before matching up with a Jon Fitch or BJ Penn.

Aldo defense good news for lighter weight divisions

The fight showed off the lighter divisions of the UFC. With Edgar-Maynard III headlining later this month and Cruz-Faber topping the card in July, the future seems bright for fighters 155 and under.

Will the UFC make the Stadium Show a regular event?

The UFC marketed around the 55,000 fans in attendance in Toronto. Despite a fan brawl that is making the rounds on Youtube, it sounded like the arena experience was amazing. Watching the PPV, the crowd seemed into all of the fights. We will see if the UFC will try to make the stadium show an annual event. It knows that it can do it in Toronto and we will see if it will try to replicate this in the U.S.

 Fan Expo

It was announced this week that the next UFC Fan Expo will take place October 7^th and 8^th. The Toronto Fan Expo drew tons of fans and it was an opportunity for MMA sponsors/vendors to get in front of its audience. MMA Elite and Round 5 were just a couple of the companies that took advantage of the expo to roll out new products.

Twitter

GSP and Machida were trending worldwide an hour after the PPV had ended. It was natural for GSP to be trending and Machida’s incredible kick got people talking. 

Odds and Ends

Biggest non-sponsor featured at UFC 129:  Costco water. The Kirkland brand of water was used throughout and received a lot of airtime when GSP doused his eye with water. In prior UFC events, the water bottles were either sponsored or covered the true manufacturer.  In the arena of monetizing every inch of real estate, I was surprised the water bottles did not receive one. Sponsors are taking advantage of the weigh-ins as Kyle Watson and Rory MacDonald sported undershorts with logos specific for the weigh-ins (i.e., logos in the groin area). Rory MacDonald’s suplexes were reminiscent of Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle in pro wrestling. Perhaps we should think of Steven Seagal’s martial arts pedigree rather than his three-word titled movies (e.g., Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Out for Justice, Marked for Death). Anyone else notice the fan winner that put the belt on GSP almost gave away the result before Buffer’s announcement. White had to hold the guy back.  Yes, we knew who won, but it was a funny moment.

MMA Payout will have a Part 2 of the Payout Perspective which will cover much more on UFC 129.

UFC 129 set an attendance record with 55, 724 in attendance Saturday night in Toronto. The gate totaled $12.1 million ($11.5 million Canadian) according to MMA Junkie.

The records shattered the previous marks of  23,152 (UFC 124) $5,397,300 (UFC 66).

In addition, record bonuses were given to fighters tonight as the Submission, KO and Fight of the Night winners received $129,000 each (in honor of UFC 129 I suppose). A total of $516,000 of bonuses were handed out.

MMA Weekly reports the bonuses as follows:

Fight of the Night:  Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo

Submission of the Night: Pablo Garza for his triangle choke of Yves Jabouin.

Knockout of the Night: Lyoto Machida for his crane kick on Randy Couture.

We will have more on the big night in Payout Perspective.

Dana White expressed concern over the UFC’s decision to move up the PPV time for the biggest event in the company’s history. The move, announced in March, was done to accommodate the East Coast markets so that audiences would not have to stay up until 1am.

Although a calculated risk White believes it was the right move. Yet, he is not sure that everyone knows that the PPV has moved up one hour.

Via MMA Junkie:

…White is concerned word hasn’t made it throughout the MMA community, which could have a major impact on PPV sales for this weekend’s event. “It’s the most dangerous thing we’ve ever done,” White said. “It’s scary as hell for me.”

Payout Perspective:

While the UFC has blanketed cable television with commercials and its UFC Countdown and UFC Primetime episodes leading up to today’s event, there still may be those accustomed to the 7pm start time. It may have been nice to have started the new time one or two PPVs earlier so fans would get used to the change.  Still, the new time will probably garner more East Coast audiences. As I’ve argued for the west coast, it will be hard to tune into the earlier fights on Facebook and Spike since they are mid-afternoon. But, most people should be able to tune in (or at least DVR) for the PPV tonight. One thing to look at tonight is the ratings for Spike TV’s prelim fights to see if the move up an hour hurts its viewership.

Enjoy the fights!

Variety is reporting that the tentative numbers for the WWE’s annual supershow met expectations with 1 million PPV buys. The buy rate reflects a 30% increase in North America and 15% overseas.

The 1 million buys was helped by the return of The Rock to the WWE roster and the annual celebrity involvement, this time it was Snooki of the Jersey Shore. In 2009, the buy rate neared 1 million with 960K buys and 2010 received a disappointing 885K. 2010’s numbers probably spurred Vince McMahon to make a push for big talent. Hence, the return of The Rock. 

 Via Variety:

WrestleMania is the company’s single biggest moneymaker each year. Last year’s PPV earned $19 million; ticket sales to the Phoenix show chalked up another $5.8 million. But that was down from previous years. In 2008, Orlando’s ‘Mania earned nearly $24 million from PPV buys and another $6 million in ticket sales.

The recession recently caused consumers to reconsider ponying up $50 for WWE’s version of the Super Bowl, or save money by holding viewing parties, causing PPV buys to drop. Fans also complained storylines were weak leading up to the event.

Payout Perspective:

2011 will be an interesting year to see the direction of the WWE. Today, it announced that it has cut its dividend amid weaker financials. It recently changed its name and strategic direction. How much has MMA taken from the WWE’s audience? Is the WWE’s move into other arenas a sign of diversifying for its shareholders? Or, is it for a potential sale to another company (something I contend is unlikely)?

It will be interesting to compare UFC 129’s buy rate with that of Wrestlemania 27.  While many might balk at this comparison, it’s a nice sample of where people are spending their money.

The UFC announced the debut of “UFC Central” on UFC.tv for this Saturday at UFC 129. The UFC is encouraging fans to purchase the PPV online and experience the UFC’s comprehensive coverage.

Via UFC press release:

UFC Central, which begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, will feature pre-fight analysis and be available for free during the first hour onUFC.TV. Once the UFC 129 live broadcast begins at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, UFC Central will only be available to fans that purchased the event for viewing on UFC.TV and will capture interviews with fighters on the fight card during the live broadcast as well as other analyst commentary.

UFC Central will be offered as a seventh video feed and fifth audio feed, leveraging UFC.TV‘s multi-camera view and multi-audio feed experience. During the live event, fans will have the option inside of UFC.TV to select UFC Central as the main broadcast; or, drag and drop it into Picture-n-Picture or Quad View so that UFC Central can be watched and/or listened to alongside the broadcast of the main fight card.

Immediately following the live broadcast, UFC Central will be offered for free at UFC.TV with post-fight analysis, making it the ultimate destination for the most comprehensive UFC 129 news.

Payout Perspective:

Whether you like it or not, you will eventually tap to the internet. At least that is the hope of the UFC as it pushes viewers to get used to watching its product on the internet. UFC.tv has been playing a free fight a day for several days to get fans to check out UFC.tv. Not only are the fights hyping the 129 card, it also familiarizes users to the web site.  If there are no bugs with the technology, this could be a novel viewing experience for UFC fans as they get pre-fight analysis, backstage reporting and post-fight reaction.

The possible theory of why the UFC is pushing UFC.tv is to wean fans of off TV PPV with the eventual hope that the UFC cuts out the middleman by having viewers pay the UFC directly for its fights. The only problem with this is that it is negates having viewing parties and watching at bars. It is hard to fathom having 10 buddies gathering around a computer to watch fights.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer (paid subscription) passes along the latest trending estimate for UFC 128: Shogun vs Jones:

Our earliest PPV estimates, and keep in mind anything this early is just an estimate, have ranged from 415,000 to 470,000, with the average being 445,000. If those numbers hold up, that would be considerably lower than most estimates people had going in. Usually UFC outdistances the estimates people have going in based on strong late hype. This didn’t have it. The Countdown special was very good, but it had less of an audience than usual.
…
It was based around Jones winning the title and while he absolutely has potential to be the next GSP, it’s happened so fast and nothing he’s headlined has put up big numbers yet.

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Meltzer also passes along the latest numbers for UFC 127: Fitch vs Penn, which took place in Australia:

Latest numbers for UFC 127 are estimated at about 260,000 buys, or almost identical to UFC 125. Not surprisingly, the places with the most interest were Hawaii (because of B.J. Penn, who headlined against Jon Fitch) and Australia (where the show took place). Strongest PPV markets appear to be Honolulu, Sydney, Calgary, Melbourne, Brisbane, Toronto, Vancouver, Dallas, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle.

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Payout Perspective:

UFC 127 looks to have performed according to expectations, which were low for the event considering that it took place in Australia and John Fitch versus BJ Penn was the main event. Not much here to note, although one may argue that BJ Penn being a draw may have been affected with his last 2 losses to Frankie Edgar and now coming off a draw, taking the immediate rematch with Fitch, which will be interesting to see what type of numbers that card does. We figure the card will be stacked with other great fights, a luxury they did not have for UFC 127.

For UFC 128, many predicted the show would do over 500K PPV buys, that does not appear to be the case. The initial main event between Shogun and Evans was not a hot ticket at all with little hype, which is why the UFC inserted Jon Jones to the main-event after Evans suffered an injury. Jones had a major marketing push after he defeated Ryan Bader and being a  local product of the New York area helped the UFC push to boost ticket sales, buzz, and PPV buys. With the extra push, the event drew an attendance of 12,619 and a gate of 2.43 million.  To this point, everything that Jones has been featured on hasn’t done particularly well in regards of ratings, gate, or PPV buys. With that said, after a dominating performance over former champ Shogun Rua and the continuing marketing push that Zuffa is providing, you would have to figure that his next PPV event he headlines will do much better than the type of numbers he has done before.

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LATEST PPV BUYS:

UFC 128: Rua vs Jones – 415,000 – 470,000 (~445K)
UFC 127: Penn vs Fitch – 260,000
UFC 126: Silva vs Belfort – 700,000 – 750,000 (~725K)
UFC 125: Edgar vs Maynard – 270,000
UFC 124: GSP vs Koscheck – 785,000
UFC 123: Rampage vs Machida – 500,000
UFC 121: Lesnar vs Velasquez – 1,050,000

MMA Fighting reports that the UFC has decided to move up the PPV start time of UFC 129 one hour earlier. There is a possibility that the time change may be permanent for future PPVs.

Via MMA Fighting:

No final decision has yet been made, though a source in the organization confirmed to MMA Fighting that they are “considering the move for all events.”

At least part of the idea, according to sources, is to take advantage of the earlier time to attract more east coast viewers going forward.

The rationale for the decision makes sense statistically. Nearly half of the United States’ population of 300 million people are located in the eastern time zone. In addition, major Canadian MMA markets in Toronto and Montreal are among six of the 10 most populated cities in Canada that call the eastern time zone home.

Though not implied by either source, an earlier start time might also open the door for further coverage of events from television and print news media restricted by deadlines.

Payout Perspective:

Bloody Elbow is running a poll on its web site which indicates that most people believe a 6pm (instead of a 7pm) start time on Saturday nights is not too early. The rationale stated by MMA Fighting makes sense based on the premise that more MMA fans will be able to see the PPV. Being on the west coast, this may have some ramifications since the start times mean that UFC Prelims would start late afternoon which may mean a bite into the ratings for Spike TV (or ION). Also, what does that mean for Facebook streams? Will the FB fights air at 4pm west coast time? Not a good spot for viewership for west coasters.

In the end, the decision to move up the start time for UFC 129 is a good considering this is amping up to be the biggest card of the year (so far) in terms of attendance and probably PPV buys. The strategy is similar to that of the WWE as it moves up Wrestlemania an hour from its usual PPV time slot.

MMAPayout wrote about the budding TV partnership just last week, which was first reported back in February for the Heavyweight Grand Prix. Primetime announced today that the Challenger Series will now be aired for free by the UK channel.

As the new UK home of Strikeforce we are pleased to announce that the exciting ‘Challengers’ events will now air FREE on Primetime, ch480 on Sky, starting with the Challengers 15 from Stockton Arena, Stockton, California on  1st April 2011.

Strikeforce Challengers is an MMA series produced by Strikeforce and Showtime to showcase and highlights up and coming fighters. It was launched in May 2009 and replaced the earlier ShoXC series.

Challenger events have allowed fighters to gain their first experience of a live televised environment and we have been luckily enough to see such stars as current Light Heavyweight Champion Rafael ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante, Matt Lindland, Ryan Couture(son of Randy) and Sarah Kaufman launch their careers live.

Strikeforce Challengers gives you the chance to watch the stars of the future, only on Primetime!

Stay tuned to Primetime, the new UK home of Strikeforce, for all the latest developments. www.primetimelive.co.uk

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Payout Perspective:

A few key notes to take away from this announcement.  First of all, there were some complains that UK MMA fans were not able to purchase the PPV if they had cable provider Virgin.  Primetime has now stated on their front page that the events are “Available on Virgin and Channel 480 on Sky”. Second, offering the Challenger Series on the channel is a great call, allowing UK fans to become familiar with the brand, promotion, and prospects before they jump on to the bigger shows, which Primetime offers as PPVs for £9.95 in the UK, or roughly $16 dollars.

The April 9 card should be another successful event for Strikeforce and will provide a great baseline to see how many UK fans are willing to purchase the product, as UK’s very own Paul Daley will headline the event against Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz.  Last week, Paul Daley took on DEEP WW Champ Yuya Shurai – which aired on UK’s Syfy channel – and finished him in the first round, which resulted in the Brit fighter becoming a top trend in both the United States and the UK, which bodes well for Strikeforce.  The fight had a lot of interest from MMA fans knowing in advance that Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker mentioned that if Daley won his fight, he would take on Nick Diaz for the WW title.  The April 9 event will also get a lot of attention from Japan, where DREAM fighters Kawajiri, Aoki (LW Champ), and Takaya (FW Champ) are scheduled to participate in the event along with Daley.

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