MMA Universe

The UFC released its response to ESPN’s feature on fighter pay. Dana White introduced ESPN’s full-length interview of Lorenzo Fertitta and called ESPN’s story “a piece of trash.”

The response video is what the UFC calls the unedited version of Fertitta’s interview which implies that ESPN edited its story to fit with what it wanted to portray. In the UFC’s response, Fertitta points out that some of the boxers featured on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights received $275 and that the UFC pays its lower tier fighters much more than that.

Seems like a good comparison but for the fact that the UFC and boxing structures are different. Also, ESPN’s role in its Friday Night Fights is not the same as the UFC’s.

Bad Left Hook sets us straight:

First of all, ESPN is not a fight promoter. This is an enormous difference. For a UFC card on FX, the UFC is pretty much in control of everything. ESPN just airs fights. They have the right to turn down a proposed fight, but that’s about it. Everything is really up to the promoters of the actual fight card.

Fertitta claims, and I’m sure he’s telling the truth, that someone fought on Friday Night Fights in a four-round bout for $275. What Fertitta doesn’t reveal — or perhaps does not actually know — is that anyone in a four-round fight that winds up on the broadcast, on TV, was positioned in a swing fight that was going to air only if there was time remaining in the two-hour time slot. There are no four-round fights purposely scheduled to air on ESPN’s series. A four-round fight is the lowest level of professional boxing, and frankly to call the majority of four-round bouts “professional boxing” is kind of a stretch; the fighters don’t often resemble what we’re used to seeing on TV, even from the middle-of-the-pack guys that get on ESPN or HBO or Showtime. It’s kind of like comparing high school football to the NFL most of the time.

Additionally, Scott Christ reiterates the sentiments I have had when the UFC-Fox deal became a reality:

UFC wants to play with the big boys in sports now. That means attention from big boy sports media, and that inevitably leads to criticism and a realistic assessment of their product and their business. The rah-rah days are dying, and it’s because of White’s ambition as much as anything else. He’s brought them here. Now they have to accept where they’re at and what comes along with that standing.

How much Zuffa revenue goes to fighters is another issue in the fighter pay debate. Dave Metzler points out that without the financial information the percentage of revenue going to fighters is a moving target:

In an attempt to use figures based on Zuffa’s percentage of an 800,000-buy show, which is the rough industry estimate on UFC 141, the $3.1 million live gate, using listed fighter pay, announced bonuses, estimates of unannounced bonuses, and percentages of pay–per-view revenue built into the main eventers’ contracts, give you a very rough figure of 28 percent going to talent. However, for the Jan. 7, Strikeforce show in Las Vegas, with a very small gate figure and a full roster of fighters to pay, that figure could easily have been in the range of 50 percent.

Metzler goes on to assert that pro wrestling, not boxing, is a closer business model to the UFC:

The closest business model to UFC is that of World Wrestling Entertainment, which is believed to pay in the range of 13-15 percent of its total revenue to its performers. While some will argue WWE is a form of performance art and not a real athletic competition – and thus the performers don’t deserve as much money – the dollars WWE derives from its performers, who take a legitimate physical pounding, is every bit as green as those which UFC makes.

Payout Perspective:

I think the UFC response (minus Dana White’s usual pleasantries to opposition) is compelling but it obviously has some flaws. From a purely PR standpoint, its a good response to the ESPN piece. What would have helped the UFC in its response is if the UFC had some up and coming fighters state how much they are paid and agree that its great. Realistically, I think the UFC could have done this because I’m sure some fighters are just glad they are getting a shot.  Having Serra, Liddell and Griffin talk is fine but they are all “company men”; well-established, past champions of the UFC.

If you didn’t read Metzler or Christ’s great piece over on Bad Left Hook, most people exposed to this debate would look at the UFC response and say, “Hey, that’s true. What about boxing’s pay?” But, its hard to compare the UFC to other sports league due to the difference in business models. The fact remains that with success comes scrutiny. ESPN, like every other TV investigative show, likely had an agenda when interviewing Fertitta. That does not necessarily mean ESPN is bad or “hates the sport.” But, it means that the UFC should be aware of the issues it now faces with more exposure.

ESPN examined the question of fighter pay in an article published earlier this week as well as a piece on its investigative show, “Outside the Lines.” OTL ran Sunday morning as it discussed issues of fighter wages and whether the UFC is a monopoly.

Dana White has denounced the article and promised a response. As MMA Fighting points out, White will likely point out factual errors with the piece but some of those errors deal with the fact that Zuffa, as a private company, does not have to disclose financial information which would reveal how much revenue Zuffa generates. The number could show how much it shares with its fighters. The OTL feature compares revenues of other leagues (NBA, NFL and NHL) with the percentage it shares with its players. However, that information is not publicly known for the UFC.

The article specifically looks at fighter pay in the UFC. No other organizations are featured in the piece to compare or contrast. Notably, the piece takes issue with the relatively low pay that entry-level UFC fighters receive – $6,000 a fight. On the other hand, Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva make millions per fight with GSP making between $4-$5 per fight. Its not clear whether this amount is the base or (more likely) after inclusion of sponsor, bonus and PPV cuts.

The ESPN article also interviews an unnamed UFC Figher which revealed the following:

“Training expenses in an average year can run $22,000, and that’s with no travel. For a typical fight, you and your corner man share a room. You fly in on Tuesday and leave Sunday and get a $50 per day per diem. If you bring anybody extra, they take it out of your show money.”

He also indicated that locker room bonuses range from $5,000 to $10,000 although most are $5,000. These are the bonuses that are not included in the  salary payroll or 3 bonus categories.

The article shows the difficulty in covering a very sensitive subject. In the ESPN and OTL feature, no UFC fighters would publicly comment with their name. As one fighter put it, “It would be the end of my career.” While ESPN does speak with a “Fighter X” no names are attached so Zuffa could still dismiss the claims made. Also, Ken Shamrock and Ricco Rodriguez have had past troubles with the UFC. Zuffa could easily claim their opinions are merely ones of spurned former employees.

Another issue to point out is that entry-level fighters still have training expenses such as gym, trainers, nutritional supplements and travel. These things are usually covered for top tier guys by sponsors or are written into their contracts.

Some interesting notes from ESPN’s interview of Lorenzo Fertitta:

• Since 2005, the first year the UFC became profitable, the company has paid more than $250 million to its fighters.
• 39 UFC fighters have become millionaires as a result of their earnings from the company.
• 29 fighters on the current roster receive a cut of pay-per-view profits.
• Since 2005, fighter pay has grown at twice the rate of revenue growth

MMA Payout will have more on the issue later this week. The story shows the great divide between entry-level fighters and the main event fighters. Its interesting that the question of a fighter union is not discussed more. Of course, if any fighter tried to put together an effort to unionize, they would be blackballed.

There is the argument that Zuffa is like any other private company. Entry-level workers start out with less pay while the best workers make the most. The company can decide how much (or how little) the worker is paid and what type of pay raise or bonus they may receive. The worker can take it or leave it.

With the UFC trying to move into the mainstream, we’ll see if this issue receives more scrutiny.

MMA Junkie reports that the ratings for Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine earned an average of 344,000 viewers on Showtime. In addtion, Strikeforce salaries were released with Robbie Lawler topping the salary roster.

Strikeforce Saturday night earned a 0.93 household rating. It is the second-lowest rated Showtime-Strikeforce show for 2011-2012 out of 9 shows during the period. The low ratings occurred despite a free preview weekend on Showtime. It did compete with the NFL’s Saints vs. Lions game. But, its a disappointing 2012 debut for Strikeforce under the new Zuffa-Strikeforce contract.

The salary payroll totaled $566,000 with Lawler receiving $150,000 with no win bonus. Main event winner Luke Rockhold received $90,000.

Via MMA Junkie:

Luke Rockhold: $90,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus)
def. Keith Jardine: $30,000

Robbie Lawler: $150,000 (no win bonus)
def. Adlan Amagov: $10,000

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal: $95,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
def. Lorenz Larkin: $17,000

Tyron Woodley: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Jordan Mein: $9,000

Tarec Saffiedine: $31,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
def. Tyler Stinson: $4,000

Nah-Shon Burrell: $8,000 (includes $4,000 win bonus)
def. James Terry: $9,000

Gian Villante: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Trevor Smith: $4,000

Ricky Legere: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Chris Spang: $6,000

Estevan Payan: $8,000 (includes $4,000 win bonus)
def. Alonzo Martinez: $5,000

Payout Perspective:

It will be interesting what Showtime will do to attract more viewers to its product. The ratings are disappointing considering the free preview allowed more viewers the opportunity to watch. A Tate-Rousey fight will be huge for the promotion (on many levels) in March. Unless we missed it, there were no Fight of the Night, Sub or KO of the Night bonuses. We’ll see if salaries will escalate for Strikeforce stars like Lawal and Melendez to compensate for not being able to jump to the UFC. Zuffa could offer its “locker room” bonuses to those stars as its form of compensation.

MMA Junkie reports that Alistair Overeem’s fight purse for his win at UFC 141 was paid to Overeem although initial reports had Golden Glory’s lawyers obtaining an order to garnish his wages.

The problem was that a bond required to execute the garnishment order was not deposited. Thus, the order to withhold a portion of Overeem’s pay was not binding.

Keith Kizer confirmed that the Nevada State Athletic Commission did not withhold the pay.

Via MMA Junkie:

A UFC official confirmed that a $200,000 bond required to execute the order was not deposited prior to the event.

The order requested a check totaling $241,285.49 be cut from UFC parent company Zuffa to Golden Glory’s corporate parent, Knockout Investments. The money included Overeem’s show and win purses, performance bonuses and proceeds from the event’s pay-per-view broadcast.

The day before the court order, Golden Glory filed suit alleging heavyweight did not pay a 30 percent commission owed to the team for a fight in June against Fabricio Werdum. In his suit, Overeem claimed the team owed him $151,000 in back pay and asked a judge to determine whether his contract is enforceable.

Knockout Investiments (KOI) and Golden Glory representatives indicated that they would continue with this strategy:

“Seeking the initial writ was merely the first step in a long-term litigation strategy that KOI and Golden Glory will prosecute in Nevada. The writ of attachment remedy remains fully available to my clients and will be sought as to Mr. Overeem’s future pay-per-view payout, which we expect will be more lucrative than his initial fight purse.”

Overeem earns a portion of all pay-per-view revenue, including $2 per PPV purchase “for all revenues received by UFC-Zuffa for telecast of the Lesnar fight in the U.S., Canada or over the Internet in excess of $500,000,” according to an Overeem contract made public by the legal proceedings.

“Rest assured, now that we have had the opportunity to troubleshoot complex international hurdles – and without a long holiday weekend to contend with – future writs of attachment will be utilized to ensure that Mr. Overeem makes good on the commissions owed to my clients and his Golden Glory training team, who helped him achieve the success he now enjoys,” Lindblom stated.

Payout Perspective:

The writ of attachment and request to garnish Overeem’s wages is an indication of how heated this lawsuit will get. Of course, the failure to follow procedure in garnishment is a glaring error. It was inferred from by KOI and GG reps that there was trouble with legal procedure due to the Christmas and New Year’s holiday as well as the “international hurdles.” We are not Nevada attorneys so we are not privy to the type of proceeding that was initiated and the type of order issued by the judge. But as an example, in my jurisdiction a bond is needed in these type of proceedings in the event that the attachment is wrongful. The reason being is that in an attachment hearing (to garnish someone’s wages) there only need be a showing that the claims have “probable validity” and have “probable cause.” Thus, the threshhold to prove something could still be in doubt. In Nevada, KOI and GG had to put up a surety bond of $200,000 to garnish a portion of Overeem’s $385K fight purse. For whatever reason, it did not do so.

The other interesting fact out of this story is the amount of money Overeem makes. MMAPayout is in the process of trying to obtain a copy of the contract and will report on our findings once we receive it.

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.

MMA Junkie reports the salaries for tonight’s event. Brock Lesnar leads the list of fighters with $400,000 with no win bonus. The salaries were disclosed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission today.Alistair Overeem is second on the wage list with $264,285.71 to show and $121,428.57 win bonus.

The remainder of the card is as follows (via MMA Junkie):

Donald Cerrone: $30,000/$30,000 Nate Diaz: $37,000/$37,000 Jon Fitch: $60,000/$60,000 Johny Hendricks: $26,000/$26,000 Alexander Gustafsson: $16,000/$16,000 Vladimir Matyushenko: $40,000/$40,000 Jim Hettes: $8,000/$8,000 Nam Phan: $8,000/$8,000 Junior Assuncao: $8,000/$8,000 Ross Pearson: $20,000/$20,000 Danny Castillo: $19,000/$19,000 Anthony Njokuani: $12,000/$12,000 Dong Hyun Kim: $41,000/$41,000 Sean Pierson: $8,000/$8,000 Efrain Escudero: $10,000/$10,000 Jacob Volkmann: $16,000/$16,000 Luis Ramos: $6,000/$6,000 Matt Riddle: $15,000/$15,000 Manny Gamburyan: $18,000/$18,000 Diego Nunes: $12,000/$12,000

Payout Perspective:

Usually the salaries are not disclosed until after the card but it appears that the salaries were released as a result of Golden Glory’s legal team obtaining an order to garnish the wages of Overeem due to the ongoing litigation between Overeem and his former management team.

Via MMA Junkie:

The judgement applies to 30 percent of Overeem’s show and win purses, any performance bonuses he may receive, and any proceeds he may receive from the pay-per-view event per his UFC contract.

The $400,000 is Lesnar’s standard salary for every UFC fight (100, 121, 116) since UFC 91 when he received $450K (but that included a $200K win bonus). He was paid $250K per show prior to his raise to $400K at UFC 100.

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.

MMA Junkie reports the salaries for Saturday night’s TUF 14 Finale. Michael Bisping was the top salary at a whopping $425,000.

Via MMA Junkie as released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission:

Michael Bisping: $425,000 (includes $150,000 win bonus)
def. Jason “Mayhem” Miller: $45,000

Diego Brandao: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Dennis Bermudez: $8,000

John Dodson: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. T.J. Dillashaw: $8,000

Tony Ferguson: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus)
def. Yves Edwards: $16,000

Johnny Bedford: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Louis Gaudinot: $8,000

Marcus Brimage: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Stephen Bass: $8,000

John Albert: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Dustin Pague: $8,000

Roland Delorme: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Josh Ferguson: $8,000

Steven Siler: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Josh Clopton: $8,000

Bryan Caraway: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Dustin Neace: $8,000

Payout Perspective:

Bisping made $275K to show and $150K for his win bonus. Is anyone else surprised that Bisping makes a base of $275K? Its more than Nick Diaz or Jon Jones made in their last fights (although its not clear if Diaz or Jones received a piece of the PPV buys). Perhaps its due to Bisping being a TUF alum and his appeal. He is a fighter that most either love or hate. He definitely is getting a main event salary as compared to others.

MMA Junkie reports the bonuses for The Ultimate Fighter Finale 14 which took place Saturday night at the Palms in Las Vegas.

Ultimate Fighter cast members John Dodson, Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez each scored bonuses which were $40,000 each. Brandao actually received two bonuses for submission and his Fight of the Night with Dennis Bermudez. Dodson won for his knockout of TJ Dillashaw.

In addition to the TUF Finale fight night bonuses, cast members Louis Gaudinot, Dustin Pague, Dodson and Bermudez won $25,000 each as a result of TUF 14’s fan voting for best KO, Sub and Fight on the show. Gaudinot and Pague won for Best Fight, Dodson for KO and Bermudez for Submission.

The Bisping-Miller main event looked better during the show than in reality as Miller looked tired as Joe Rogan described the fatigue as an “adrenaline dump.” Although scheduled for five rounds, the fight was a one-sided beatdown which mercifully was stopped. It will be interesting to see where both fighters go in the middleweight division after this result.

MMA Junkie also reported that UFC officials stated that attendance for The Pearl at the Palms was 1,649. No gate was reported as of yet. Earlier this year, TUF 13 at the same venue garnered 2,053.

Payout Perspective:

Despite the lackluster main event, the TUF 14 Finale had very good finals which displayed the reasons why fans should be excited about the bantamweight and featherweight divisions. The two runner ups will likely be in the UFC in the near future. The lower attendance figure (as compared to TUF 13 Finale in June)  is likely due to college football and the Cotto-Margarito fight.

It is not known now whether the TUF bonuses will continue next season. The bonuses this season were a carrot for the fighters to take chances and put on exciting fights. The bonuses were an improvement by the UFC to help boost ratings. We will see if the UFC decides to continue this with Fox.

The California State Athletic Commission released the payroll for UFC 139. Notably, Cung Le topped the list of fighter payouts with $350,000.

Le also received a $70,000 bonus for being co-fight of the night.

The fighter list via MMA Junkie:

Dan Henderson: $250,000 (no win bonus)
def. Mauricio Rua: $165,000

Wanderlei Silva: $200,000 (no win bonus)
def. Cung Le: $350,000

Urijah Faber: $64,000 (includes $32,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Bowles: $19,000

Martin Kampmann: $58,000 (includes $29,000 win bonus)
def. Rick Story: $19,000

Stephan Bonnar: $68,000 (includes $34,000 win bonus)
def. Kyle Kingsbury: $10,000

Ryan Bader: $48,000 (includes $24,00 win bonus)
def. Jason Brilz: $13,000

Michael McDonald: $14,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
Alex Soto: $6,000

Chris Weidman: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. Tom Lawlor: $12,000

Gleison Tibau: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Rafael Dos Anjos: $16,000

Miguel Torres: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Nick Pace: $4,000

Seth Baczynski: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Brown: $12,000

Danny Castillo: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Shamar Bailey: $8,000

Payout Perspective:

Most people would have believed that Dan Henderson would have been the top draw here. Le’s salary is surprising considering he hasn’t fought in over a year and his last fight in Strikeforce it was reported he made $100,000. Le was a hometown draw, somewhat of a movie star and a marketable fighter but the salary seems quite high. Le signed a 6 fight deal with the UFC but with movies on the horizon, its unlikely the 39 year old will finish the contract.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective! This week we’ll be taking a look at the UFC on FOX network debut headlined by the UFC Heavyweight Title bout between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos.

The event took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and featured the HW title fight between Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos. This was the only fight scheduled to air on the FOX network (60 minute time slot reserved from 9:00 pm-10:00 pm ET). The prelims portion was headlined by Ben Henderson vs Clay Guida, which aired on Facebook, FOXSports.com, and on Fox Deportes in the USA.  FOX Deportes aired Velasquez vs Dos Santos, Guida vs Henderson, and Garza vs Dustin Poirier. Facebook.com and FOXSports.com aired the rest of the prelims.

Fighter Disclosed Payouts

Note: that the money reported below is only the money required to be reported by the commission, which does not take into account undisclosed bonuses or “locker room” bonuses, as they are referred to in MMA.

Courtesy of MMAJunkie:

The total disclosed payroll for the event was $666,000.

Junior Dos Santos: $220,000 (includes $110,000 win bonus)
def. Cain Velasquez: $100,000

Ben Henderson: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Clay Guida: $40,000

Dustin Poirier: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Pablo Garza: $8,000

Ricardo Lamas: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Cub Swanson: $15,000

DaMarques Johnson: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
def. Clay Harvison: $8,000

Darren Uyenoyama: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto: $15,000

Robert Peralta: $16,000 (includes $ win bonus)
def. Mackens Semerzier: $8,000

Alex Caceres: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Cole Escovedo: $6,000

Mike Pierce: $36,000 (includes $18,000 win bonus)
def. Paul Bradley: $18,000

Aaron Rosa: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Lucas: $6,000

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Attendance and Gate

MMAJunkie reports that UFC on FOX held at the Honda Center in  Anaheim officially drew 11,607 in attendance for a $1.07 million gate. 1,700 tickets were unsold and 1,743 were comps. The average paid ticket price was $108.70.

It was not a great event in terms of gate and attendance, but that was to be expected as the UFC purposely lowered the ticket prices to try and pack the event as much as they could to give the UFC on FOX event a great atmosphere. In terms of gate and average paid ticket price, it will probably be one of their lowest numbers for a domestic event with the caliber of fighters on the card.  These numbers reflect what typical Ultimate Fight Night or UFC on Versus events would do, though those have a considerably lower payroll and don’t typically have title fights with much smaller venues.  This event also had the benefit of being held in Southern California where Cain Velasquez won the HW title against Brock Lesnar and had the novelty of being the UFC’s first network TV event, so by those standards, not selling out has to be a bit of a disappointment.  On the other hand, the main event was going to be televised for free on Network TV and all prelims were streaming for free on Facebook, so it may not be as bad of a number as it seems.

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Ratings

MMAPayout reported this weekend that the UFC on FOX event on Saturday night averaged 5.7 million viewers (3.1 rating) and peaked at 8.8 million viewers. The demos were: M18-34: 4.3 (peak rating 7.19) and M18-49: 4.0.  This was the largest audience ever to watch an MMA event in the United States, breaking the record of 5.3 million (3.7 rating) by The Ultimate Fighter episode on Spike TV which featured Kimbo Slice vs Roy Nelson back in 2009.

Other notable high rating MMA shows include Ken Shamrock vs Tito Ortiz on Spike TV in 2006 which averaged 4.3 million viewers (3.1 rating) and UFC 75: Henderson vs Rampage in 2007 on Spike TV did 4.7 million viewers (3.1 rating).  The reason why the rating numbers don’t match the viewers is due to the increase of reach Spike TV has increased in the past few years.

On Network TV, the previous rating champ was the EliteXC Primetime event which featured Kimbo Slice vs James Thompson, which avaged 4.85 million viewers (3.0 rating).

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FOX TV Rating Breakdown (Quarterly):

- UFC on FOX (9:00 pm-9:15 pm): 5.25 million viewers

-UFC on FOX (9:15 pm-9:30 pm): 5.48 million viewers

-UFC on FOX (9:30 pm-9:45 pm): 7.09 million viewers

-UFC on FOX (9:45 pm-10:00 pm): 4.88 million viewers

- Overall: Average of 5.7M viewers watched the fight live or via DVR playback within the same day. (Nielsen)

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FOX TV Rating Notes:

- If you combine the FOX and FOX Deportes telecasts (one in Spanish, one in English), it would have received close to a 3.5 rating with 6.2 million viewers and a peak of 8.8 million and a M18-34 rating of 4.7. It is believed a peak close to 9 million was achieved combining both.

- The 4.3 rating in Males 18-34 beat every college football game this season except the LSU vs Alabama game on CBS.

- The 4.3 rating in Males 18-34 beat 65% of the playoff and World Series baseball games this season on FOX.

- The 4.3 rating in Males 18-34 was the third highest rated television show of the year for FOX Deportes.

- The show drew 1.7 million women over the age of 18.

- The median age of viewers for the telecast was 35 years old.

- The 5.7 million viewers was the most watched fight in broadcast on US television since HBO’s Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitschko back in 2003

- UFC programming delivered a total of 6.7 million impressions across all FSMG television networks.

- The peak of 8.8 million lasted as long as the fight did, which was 1 minute (fight started at 9:40 pm).

- By 9:45 pm, the viewership had dropped to 5.9 million. Kimbo Slice vs James Thompson peaked at 6.51 million and lasted for 10 minutes and 38 seconds. (Sports Illustrated) … about 25% of the audience had left at the end of the main event.

- UFC on FOX began with 5.2 million viewers and dipped as low as 4.4 million before viewership started to climb around 9:36 pm, as the fighters were starting to make their way to the Octogon. (Sports Illustrated)

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Fuel TV Ratings:

- Two Hour UFC Pre-Fight Show (4:00 pm-6:00 pm ET) averaged 77,000 viewers (0.21 rating) making it Fuel TV’s highest rated program of the year. The prefight show also drew an average of 58,000 viewers in the M18-49 demo, the largest since the network become nationally rated.

-The UFC prefight show ranked as a top 20 show in the time period for Men 18-34 (.29), performing about as well or better than widely distributed networks like History Channel (.31), USA (.25), SyFy (.19) and AMC (.13).  FUEL TV also performed well in the Men 18-49 demo (.31), close to or matching ubiquitous networks like Discovery (.36), Comedy Central (.35) and MTV (.31).

- The One-Hour UFC postfight show (7:00 pm – 8:00 pm ET) drew 37,000 viewers.

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FOX Deportes Ratings:

- Nearly 500,000 average viewers watched the event on FOX Deportes.

- The quarter-hour from 9:30 to 9:45 did about 900,000 viewers on Fox Deportes in Spanish.

- The Velasquez-dos Santos fight delivered a 3.9 coverage area HH rating, 487,000 viewers, and 352,000 A18-49 making it the highest-rated fight of any kind in Spanish language cable history.

- Saturday’s undercard coverage ranks as the second highest-rated fight-event in FOX Deportes history with a 3.4 HH rating, 365,000 viewers, and 237,000 A18-49 viewers.

- Saturday’s fight ranks as FOX Deportes’ highest-rated program since the Manchester United vs. Chelsea Premier League soccer match (5.0) on Sept. 18.

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Spike TV Counter Programming Ratings:

- Spike TV’s Saturday night telecast of “Dos Santos vs. Velasquez: Unleashed for the Heavyweight Title” between 9:00-10:00 pm ET drew 719,000 viewers and a 0.6 rating with Men 18-34. List of ratings for “Unleashed” episodes pre and post UFC on FOX are listed below:

- At 8:00 pm: Before UFC on FOX went live, “Unleashed” drew 923,000 viewers .

- At 10:00 pm:  After the UFC on FOX had gone off air, “Unleashed” drew 787,000.

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Brazil Ratings on TV Globo:

- The event peaked at 22M viewers in Brazil, and during the fight (1 minute), it reached a 20 rating and a 52% share (percentage of homes with TV’s). The ratings were above average for a Sunday morning. (Globo)

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FOXSports.com:

- Tallied 257,000 total live streams for the nine undercard matches, while all the UFC content during and around the event generated over 1 million streams.

- Other than Super Bowl related content, this was the biggest video event in FOXSports.com history.

Top Rated MMA Shows (Average Viewers):

- 5.7M viewers (8.8M peak), “UFC on FOX: Velasquez vs Dos Santos”, FOX (11/12/2011)
- 5.3M viewers (6.1M peak), “The Ultimate Fighter: Kimbo Slive vs Roy Nelson”, SPIKE TV (09/30/2009)
- 4.9M viewers (6.5M peak), “EliteXC Primetime: Kimbo Slice vs James Thompson”, CBS (05/31/2008)
- 4.7M viewers (5.9M peak), “UFC 75: Dan Henderson vs Rampage Jackson”, SPIKE TV (09/08/2007)
- 4.2M viewers (5.7M peak), “UFC: Ken Shamrock vs Tito Ortiz 3″, SPIKE TV (10/10/2006)

Top Rated MMA Shows (Ratings):

- 3.7 Rating, M18-34: 6.9, “The Ultimate Fighter: Kimbo Slive vs Roy Nelson”, SPIKE TV (09/30/2009)
- 3.1 Rating, M18-34: 6.0, “UFC: Ken Shamrock vs Tito Ortiz 3″, SPIKE TV (10/10/2006)
- 3.1 Rating, M18-34: 5.7, “UFC 75: Dan Henderson vs Rampage Jackson”, SPIKE TV (09/08/2007)
- 3.1 Rating, M18-34: 4.3, “UFC on FOX: Velasquez vs Dos Santos”, FOX (11/12/2011)
- 3.0 Rating, M18-34: 3.2, “EliteXC Primetime: Kimbo Slice vs James Thompson”, CBS (05/31/2008)

- What we can take from these numbers is how impressive Spike TV has performed over the last several years with UFC content.  The 3.7 rating with a 6.9 M18-34 rating is almost unheard of at the moment, and even the UFC on FOX couldn’t top that, although FOX has a bigger reach than Spike TV, which is the reason why viewership is higher for FOX with the same or lesser ratings.

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General Rating Notes:

- FOX scheduled the Velasquez vs Dos Santos bout to start at 9:40 PM, which was exactly when Stanford vs Oregon – a top 10 college football game – was going into halftime in order to acquire some extra viewers who may have been flipping channels.

- By starting at 9:40 p.m., if the fight went passed 3 rounds, it would go well past 10 p.m., when the local news was scheduled to start for FOX affiliate stations. At that point, a ton of new viewers would be watching the final rounds of what on paper expected to be an exciting fight a bump the ratings. A five round fight would have ended past 10:10, not accounting for reading the decision, nterviews, and wrap up, which would take you closer to 10:20.

- FOX was selling ads based on predictions of 4.5 million viewers, which means they easily met their goal (5.7 million). (Yahoo Sports)

- The strongest markets for the show were Las Vegas, Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio, Tulsa, San Diego, Greensboro, New Orleans and Los Angeles. It aired in Las Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles out of prime time.

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Storylines

- FOX Flexes Promotional Muscle for UFC

Sports Business Daily did a great story on the FOX’s promotional efforts heading into the UFC on FOX event.

The early returns have been strong, Fertitta said. The “UFC Primetime” preview show that Fox aired after its NFL telecasts two Sundays ago drew a 1.3 rating, which equates to about 2 million viewers. That about doubled the audience for similar UFC preview shows on Spike. Saturday night’s prime-time debut was close to sold out shortly after it hit the street, Fertitta said. Fox typically gets about $50,000 for a 30-second spot during its Saturday night programming, according to survey results published by Ad Age. ABC gets about $85,000 for spots on Saturday night college football.
…
While Fox Sports co-President Eric Shanks would not discuss specific rates for the one-hour, one-fight show, he said they exceeded expectations.
…
“The first fight out of the gate, there is tremendous interest,” Shanks said. “We had no problem selling at a good rate. And we haven’t even started the seven-year clock yet.”

-  Not Airing Guida vs Henderson Proves Costly for the UFC. Did they Have A Choice?

Guida vs Henderson was exactly the type of fight that would have drawn plenty of viewers for the UFC before the big HW Title matchup.  It had all the ingredients needed to build up a viewing fanbase and could have possibly served as their new version of Griffin vs Bonner, which propelled their popularity over on Spike TV.  It was an exciting and technical fight, which breath-taking back and forth between the two which resulted in a Fight of the Year candidate. It also lasted 3 rounds, which is exactly what was the dynamic needed to show to the new MMA spectators tuning in: a fight can last all 3 rounds or 1 minute, but it will be exciting either way.

The question is who’s call was this and did they have a choice? According to Ben Grossman from Broadcasting and Cable, “For those wondering, Fox did not have the rights to show the rest of the fights Saturday night on air, as Spike TV technically still owns those rights until the end of the year, so what turned out to be the best fight of the night – the one before the main event — was only available online.” I believe this is the reason why prelims, including the Guida vs Henderson fights were only shown to international viewers and on FOX Deportes, a Spanish broadcast.

-  Culinary Workers Union Picketing UFC Headquarters During Weekend

Over the weekend, the Culinary Workers Union was picketing UFC headquarters in Las Vegas and trying to mobilize people to send messages to FOX to cancel its TV contract with the UFC.  They have already made their voice clear sending a letter to the FTC regarding the UFC’s practices and also creating multiple websites highlighting Dan White’s past rants and vulgar language as well as “Unfit for Children” propaganda. The has also been activity by the union to back the anti-MMA legislators in New York as well as sending letters to major UFC sponsors encouraging them to drop the MMA promotion.

- Critiquing UFC on FOX Broadcast

Luke Thomas of MMA Nation had a great article on some of the things UFC and FOX can tweak in order to improve future broadcasts (10 Steps To Improving UFC On Fox Broadcasts) … Loretta Hunt gives her own opinions and suggestions on SI.com (Three thoughts on UFC on Fox 1). Having Dana White as an analyst in the post-fight wrap-up provided some cringe-worthy moments for fans, as both Thomas and Hunt mentioned. It has been a common complain heard from within the MMA media circle, how Dana White criticized Valasquez plan and questioned Dos Santos stamina, as he appeared nervous and angry at the outcome.

- Social Media Activity Backfires on the UFC

FightOpinion has done a great job documenting the Penn State sex scandal and how Forrest Griffin’s jokes on Twitter were not taken very kindly by various media outlets and anti- sex and child abuse organizations.  The Culinary Workers Union was also quick to point the controversy out on their anti-UFC website. Loretta Hunt was invited to NPR to talk about the matter. The segment’s title was “Misogyny in the UFC” (45 minute mark). Since

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Odds and Ends

- The UFC painted over the blood on the Octogon before going live on FOX, per FOX’s request.  Dana White said they wanted to go on air with a nice clean presentation package and that it had nothing to do with FOX reacting negatively towards blood on the mat.

- For a brief moment at the beginning of the UFC on FOX broadcast, FOX flashed the following message: “The following might be the most exciting live sporting event in the history of television, and it’s our duty to say: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED”

- Bellator purchased some ad spots during the UFC on FOX broadcast in the Florida market in order to promote an upcoming event.

- The next UFC on FOX event has been scheduled for January 28th, 2012 being held in the United Center in Chicago.

- The first UFC on FX event will take place on January 20th and will be headlined by Jim Miller vs Melvin Guillard. Sydney, Australia and Nashville Tennessee have both been rumored as potential sites to host the event.

- FOX Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill stated that FOX specials would be 90 minutes, airing from 8:30 to 10 p.m. on Saturday nights with two or three fights. The UFC on FX live cards will take place on Fridays and would be 2 hour shows. Fuel TV events will be 3 hours in length and will also air all prelims.

- UFC 2012 Target Schedule:  14 PPV events, 4 UFC on FOX events, 6 UFC on FX events, and a minimum of 6 UFC on FUEL TV events. The Ultimate Fighter will also have around 24 live events on FX, Friday nights.

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Mainstream Thoughts on UFC on FOX

- Notes And Thoughts About UFC On Fox (Broadcasting & Cable)

UFC on Fox could have gone better but it definitely could have gone much worse.  The fact of the matter is Saturday night showed that Fox is exactly what UFC needed, and UFC can be a major player for Fox, FX and whatever Fuel ends up being down the road, for a long, long time.

- Quick KO good or bad for UFC on Fox? (ESPN)

Fox Sports chief executive David Hill admitted he and president Dana White discussed the “tactics” of booking a single, heavyweight fight in hindsight, but added he was overwhelmingly satisfied with the product.
…
“It absolutely delivered everything I hoped it would,” Hill told ESPN.com. “I spoke to Dana and maybe, tactically, Dana didn’t play it the right way. But this is what you get in this sport. This is world heavyweight champion action.”

- UFC’s Fox debut neither home run nor strikeout (Yahoo)

Saturday night was a similar step, just on a larger scale. Instead of Spike TV, it was the Fox network. Instead of two unknown scrappers, it was the two best heavyweights in the sport..
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Unfortunately, MMA is unpredictable. As president Dana White said over-and-over in promoting the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos heavyweight title match, the company’s live network TV debut on Fox, it could end in 30 seconds, or it could go five rounds.

- UFC’s network TV debut a success, despite lasting all of 64 seconds (Sports Illustrated)

That doesn’t go just for the Fox telecast, either. While the early undercard was playing out to a smallish crowd of diehards inside the arena, there was a brightly lit red carpet set up outside, where celebrities from MMA to the TV B-list — most from Fox programs, naturally — passed through a gauntlet of cameras, asked the same questions by every microphone wielder, smiling the same smiles for every lens. Inside, once the preliminaries were out of the way, the building had filled with a deafening roar, the octagon mat was cleaned of undercard blood stains. Don’t want to make a bad first impression with squeamish new viewers.

- UFC on Fox: What the Media Is Saying (Hollywood Reporter)

The bout lasted a little over a minute, with Dos Santos knocking Velasquez to the ground with a punch to the temple and a beat down that followed until the referee stopped the fight.
…
Reaction to the broadcast ranged from the humorous to the general consensus that Fox has a winner with the franchise.

- A few thoughts about tonight’s UFC fight … (San Francisco Chronicle)

No mercy, indeed. The heavyweight Junior Dos Santos/Cain Velasquez fight ends with Dos Santos knocking out Velasquez after just over a minute in the first round. I would say that was the second-worst case scenario with UFC’s historic first fight on network TV. (Worst case scenario by far was a gruesome injury.)

- Fight Night in America (Esquire)

The hype on Fox was nothing short of lunatic. Dana White, the bald genius UFC president and probably the smartest sports executive in the country, wore a black suit. So did Brock Lesner, and so did Alistair Overeem when they cut to him octagon-side, which doesn’t sound so good, as if we were going to look back in thirty years on them as the new Ali and Frazier, which doesn’t either. Junior Dos Santos made his ring walk to “Gonna Fly Now,” which is the theme from Rocky. Cain Velasquez walked into the cage, petrified, and they stared at each other and they kicked some little kicks and then, a minute into the kicking and the staring, Dos Santos sent a loopy and rather laughably slow right hook to Velasquez’s left ear. Velasquez dropped to the canvas and then Dos Santos went and hit the shit out of him eleven times. The referee took his sweet time to stop it. It was over. There was no blood. It wasn’t very exciting.

- Ultimate fighting is too brutal to be considered a sport, even if it’s on TV (Washington Post)

Excuse me, but ultimate fighting is not safer than cheerleading. I’ve watched some ultimate fighting. It’s a brutal sport. In fact, I don’t think ultimate fighting is a sport at all. It’s violence presented as entertainment..
…
By showing fights on Fox, UFC is trying to turn ultimate fighting into a regular sport and to make kicking someone in the face as normal as shooting a free throw. Close to 6 million people watched the Saturday night fight. Fox plans to show more ultimate fighting in the next few months.

- Ultimate fighting is too brutal to be considered a sport, even if it’s on TV (Deadspin)

I’d planned to write something about the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos fight today. But the fight lasted all of 64 seconds. Gotta feel for anyone who sat through eons of buildup only to make for the suds and miss the action. The UFC’s debut on Fox was a flop. A disappointment on a grand scale. A few leg kicks from Velasquez, one overhand right from Dos Santos and that was the end of it. Dunzo. The card in its entirety.

- UFC proves it’s here to stay (The Globe and Mail – Canada)

Rarely sticklers for journalistic purity, Fox used White himself as an analyst (Imagine Gary Bettman as the star of Coach’s Corner). Even as the main card tanked with headliner Cain Velasquez succumbing in just 64 seconds to challenger Junior Dos Santos, White and co-analyst Brock Lesnar kept pitching the gospel. White savaged Velasquez’s passivity. “I don’t understand why Cain wouldn’t go in for the shot, pressure him and not stay in his range. But what the hell am I? I’m not anybody’s coach or trainer.”
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Right. Resistance is futile. UFC is here to stay. Or, as our mother used to say, until somebody loses an eye.

- UFC Was Never Meant For Network Television (IBTimes – New York)

It’s not the management of the UFC that will prohibit the sport from moving forward. The UFC will continue to expand its brand name recognition, and people will continue to tune in and watch the big fights. Mixed-martial arts isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and, therefore, UFC won’t be going anywhere either. But as for UFC being part of a dinner conversation in most American homes, that will never, ever happen. The sport is too volatile on too many levels.

- Dos Santos claims Velasquez’s UFC belt in Fox show (Chron)

The brief fight was the only event on a one-hour broadcast on Fox, which signed the UFC to a seven-year broadcast deal earlier this year. Any newcomers to the sport who tuned in got a taste of MMA’s violence, but not much else — particularly if they returned late from a commercial break.
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Or even if they blinked.

- All Up in the Videos (The Classical)

And that’s how a typical display of MMA’s chaotic nature and dos Santos’ signature power were recast as a bad, stupid thing—the natural result of Velasquez fighting foolishly against a one-dimensional foe—which in turn recast a heavyweight title fight as an anti-climactic scuffle pitting an idiot against some non-athlete. At the risk of belaboring things, the person doing this was the president of the UFC, whose job is supposed to be spinning any result into a story that makes the viewers care. I’ve followed the sport for over a decade, and even I was starting to wonder if I should keep caring.

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Social Media – Sports Business Circle Reactions After KO

- Michele Steele: “Huge night for UFC debut on Fox — hard to believe that UFC started w $2M investment 10 years ago, now $2 BILLION brand”

- John Ourand: “Wow. A knockout in the first minute?? Bad news for Fox. … What’s Fox’s filler programming now?”

- Bill Simmons: “UFC loses its network virginity to Fox and it’s over in under 90 seconds. Just like real life!”

- Darren Rovell: “UFC had the same problem years ago when ESPN put Chuck Liddell on SportsCenter & ESPN Mag. Then he lost in minutes.” … “If you’re a UFC newcomer, how do you feel after tonight? 46.2% less likely to watch, 32.4% more likely to watch, 21.4% have to see more.”

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Twitter and Google Trends

Social Media on that Saturday was quite peculiar. There were literally no sporting events trending on that day (usually some of the hottest trends occur during sporting events). “Bendo” and “Clay Guida” were all trend topics for the night.  In fact, airing all of the prelims on Facebook seemed to have hurt the buzz for the show as these were the only two topics to trend before the UFC on FOX broadcast.  During the event, #UFCONFOX, “Cain Velasquez“, and “Dos Santos” were all trending along with “Pacquiao” and “Marquez“.

In Google under the “Hot Searches” section, “Cain Velasquez vs Dos Santos” (#17) and “UFC on FOX” (#20) were the only two items in the top 20 relating to the event on November 12 while “Manny Pacquiao” and “Marquez” were 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th, and 14th on the list.  College Football’s “Oregon vs Stanford” was #16.

From looking at some of these social media trends, it can be speculated that having no fights on a TV platform in addition to the Pacquiao fight and the head-to-head college football game affected some of the UFC’s buzz going into the event.  It can also be assumed that although the ratings were good for Fuel TV’s standards, it did not help build up and carry momentum into the UFC on FOX event.  Facebook fights still appear to have very little effect on getting more viewers to order or watch the fights at this point.

Airing the fights on FX and carrying the audience over to FOX on their next event should pay dividends for them and create more social media buzz that could bring more eyeballs into their next broadcast.  Social Media was heavily underutilized for this event.

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Sponsor, Promotion and Marketing Watch

- UFC on FOX Sponsors in the Cage: Uncharted 3 (PS3 Video Game), Muscle Pharm (Supplements), Xyience (Sports Drinks), SafeAuto (Insurance), Marines, G’zOne (Casio Phone), Bud Light (Anheuser-Busch), UFC Undisputed 3 (Video Game- THQ), and the main sponsor of the event was Dodge (US Automobile).

UFC on FOX TV Spots: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (video game), Tapout (with kids practicing MMA inside a cage, which was an interesting choice of a spot to expose to the mainstream audience considering recent debates on that subject), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (movie), UFC 139 promo, Jack in the Box,  AMPM, & a GOOD number of local spots.

Cain Velasquez Sponsors: Dethrone (apparel), Milwaukee Tools, MicroTech, Oak Grove Technologies, Lugz (footwear), BSN (supplements), California Wheels, and AKA (gym).

Junior Dos Santos Sponsors: TOTVS, Gillette, Renato Saraiva, Analise, Team Nogueira (gym), Pretorian (apparel), Siciliano, Bony Acai (sport drink), and his own brand Cigano… all were Brazilian based sponsors.

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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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.

MMA Junkie reports that last nights UFC Fight Night 25 drew 7,112 fans for a gate of $685,000. In addition, Junkie reports the bonuses as $55,000 each.

The Battle of the Bayou ranked 10th amongst the 25 Fight Nights held by the UFC. In addition, the bonuses were announced by the UFC and are as follows:

Fight of the Night – Matthew Riddle vs. Lance Benoist
KO of the Night – Jake Ellenberger
Submission of the Night – T.J. Waldburger

Payout Perspective:

A disappointing night for Jake Shields although its likely that he was preoccupied for personal reasons. However, Jake Ellenberger’s career took a major jump. This night was heavily promoted at the start since it was presented by Bud Light. But with the Fox deal, and the rumors of Spike replacing the UFC with Bellator, there did not seem to be a lot of buzz for the event. In addition, looking purely at the fight lineup, there wasn’t much to be excited to see. Also, the Jones-Rampage “confrontation” was embarrassing. In the new Fox era, let’s hope this is scrapped. I think its awkward when HBO has its boxing “face off”. Its just not good if you don’t have two guys that can riff.  Only Evans-Rampage had that feel.

Still, a good attendance and gate on a night when there were a lot of other alternatives to watch.

The New York Times reports on the payout Floyd Mayweather is set to receive from his fight against Victor Ortiz Saturday. With all said and done, Mayweather could be paid $40 million.

In addition to his reported $25 million payout for fighting Victor Ortiz, Mayweather will receive a portion of the gate, concessions, souvenirs and PPV revenue.

Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions explained the structure to the NY Times.

Via NY Times:

To explain the business model, Schaeffer starts with a pie. A little more than half goes to the distributors (Time Warner, DirecTV, etc.). The balance goes to the network, HBO or Showtime, which takes its distribution fees and hands the rest to the promoters.
In this case, Golden Boy has one contract with HBO and another with Mayweather Promotions. But the money, less what distributors and networks take, is under Mayweather’s control; normally the promoter would control it.

In addition, there is the PPV revenue which Schaeffer includes other revenue streams from that:

Those streams include foreign sales for a fight broadcast in 168 territories; closed-circuit revenues (in 2,000 or so bars and restaurants nationwide, in theaters and in rooms at Las Vegas casinos); site revenue (ticket sales, merchandise); and sponsorships.

Its an unprecedented payment structure that rationalizes the opulence Mayweather flaunts.  But for the spoils, there is the risk as Mayweather, or Mayweather Promotions, must put up $10 million in expenses to market the fight.

Payout Perspective:

This is an intriguing structure for payment. It does involve some risk as the astronomical dollar figures would only come at the back end of the fight. Meaning, Mayweather is not guaranteed the reported fight purse until the final numbers are determined. Still, it shows that despite his bombastic persona, Mayweather is a shrewd business person.

Its amazing to see how much money and control Mayweather has over his own fights. It shows how different boxing and MMA is with respect to business model. Even though certain fighters receive a portion of the PPV revenue and/or gate, its not as much as Mayweather will receive for his fights.

MMA Junkie reports the payroll from Saturday’s Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov totaled $942,000. The Ohio State Athletic Commission released the payroll information on Monday.

Via MMA Junkie:

Josh Barnett: $150,000 (no win bonus)
def. Sergei Kharitonov: $100,000

Daniel Cormier: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus)
def. Antonio Silva: $100,000

Luke Rockhold: $50,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus)
def. Ronaldo Souza: $70,000

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal: $85,000 (no win bonus)
def. Roger Gracie: $80,000

Pat Healy: $17,500 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Maximo Blanco: $13,000

Mike Kyle: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima: $5,000

Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Yoel Romero: $10,000

Jordan Mein: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos: $20,000

Alexis Davis: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus)
def. Amanda Nunes: $7,500

Dominique Steele: $5,000 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
def. Chris Mierzwiak: $3,000

Payout Perspective:

The Heavyweights each receive 6 figures Saturday. I include Cormier since he received his $50K win bonus in addition to his $50K base. This likely is due to the fact he was an originally an alternate. Also, no win bonuses for Barnett or King Mo.

Its interesting that attendance and gate were not reported, when its usually announced after every other event. From the looks of the event on television, it did not seem like there were many in attendance which is a shame since this was a very good night of fights. If you are to believe some reports, there was poor attendance and Strikeforce comped many tickets. With a hefty payroll, it had to be a big money loss for Zuffa.

With the report of Cormier out with a broken hand, will Zuffa wait for him to recover to finish the HW Grand Prix or will there be a substitute to finish off this once good, now ill-fated idea. As many speculate, Strikeforce folding seems as imminent as Bellator moving to Spike. As Alistair Overeem, Jason Miller, Nick Diaz and Cung Le have left the promotion for one reason or another, each has emerged in the UFC. It seems like a matter of time before all Strikeforce fighters are folded into the UFC.

The salaries, ratings and attendance and gate have come back from UFC on Versus 5 from the Bradley Center in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Retiring Chris Lytle received a big sendoff as he ended up the biggest winner of the night.

Attendance and gate

MMA Junkie reports that 6,751 fans attended the event for a gate of $539,000. It was the third highest “UFC on Versus” show.

Ratings

MMA Mania reports that 766,000 viewers watched Sunday night’s fights. This was slightly up from June’s “UFC on Versus.”

Bonuses

It was the unofficial Chris Lytle retirement party as Lytle received bonuses for Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night. Donald Cerrone earned the other bonus for KO of the night. The bonuses were $65,000 each. In addition to the $130,000 in bonuses, Lytle won a Harley Davidson Blackline as a result of a promotion by the motorcycle maker in honor of the UFC coming to its hometown of Milwaukee. (h/t MMA Junkie)

Payouts

MMA Junkie reports the following salaries from the event:

Chris Lytle: $70,000 (includes $35,000 win bonus)
def. Dan Hardy: $25,000

Ben Henderson: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Jim Miller: $35,000

Donald Cerrone: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
def. Charles Oliveira: $12,000

Duane “Bang” Ludwig: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
def. Amir Sadollah: $20,000

Jared Hamman: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus)
def. C.B. Dollaway: $20,000

Joseph Benavidez: $43,000 (includes $21,500 win bonus)
def. Eddie Wineland: $10,000

Ed Herman: $52,000 (includes $26,000 win bonus)
def. Kyle Noke: $8,000

Ronny Markes: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Karlos Vemola: $10,000

Jim Hettes: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Alex Caceres: $8,000

Cole Miller: $34,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. T.J. O’Brien: $6,000

Jacob Volkmann: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
def. Danny Castillo: $17,000

Edwin Figueroa: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Jason Reinhardt: $6,000

Payout Perspective:

A very entertaining night of fights with a lot of action on the TV portion of the card. Chris Lytle ended up making $200,000 and a motorcycle for the night. Not a bad sendoff. Ben Henderson also scored an upset over Jim Miller although Henderson seems to be overlooked since the “Showtime Kick.” Look for Henderson to fight for the title in 2012.   The ratings were decent as it went up against the WWE’s Summerslam PPV and Sunday Night Baseball.

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MMA Junkie reports that last Friday night’s Strikeforce Challengers 17 garnered an average of 232,000 viewers. The average reflects the fourth highest in “Challengers” history and an increase from 210,000 viewers for Challengers 16.

In addition, the payout list was revealed via MMA Junkie:

Bobby Voelker: $11,000 (includes $5,500 win bonus)
def. Roger Bowling: $4,500

Devin Cole: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus)
def. Shawn Jordan: $4,000

Ovince St. Preux: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Joe Cason: $3,000

Sarah Kaufman: $10,000 (no win bonus)
def. Liz Carmouche: $2,500

Adlan Amagov: $8,000 ($4,000 win bonus)
def. Ron Stallings: $3,000

T.J. Cook: $5,000 ($2,500 win bonus)
def. Lionel Lanham: $2,000

Anthony Smith: $5,000 ($2,500 win bonus)
def. Ben Lagman: $2,000

Bill Cooper: $4,000 ($2,000 win bonus)
def. Maka Watson: $2,000

Sterling Ford: $6,000 ($3,000 win bonus)
def. Brian McLaughlin: $2,500

Payout Perspective:

A very good showing for the Challengers series as it appears that it may have found a home base in Vegas. The ratings on Showtime are very good considering it competed with HD Net’s offering of Legacy Fighting Championships. Kaufman’s win does not include a win bonus because there’s a clause in her contract that states that she does not receive a win bonus unless she finishes her opponent (via Chris Nelson of Sherdog). A pretty tough clause to have, but it promotes exciting fights.

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective! This week we’ll be taking a look at at the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix second event televised on Showtime, headlined by the current Strikeforce HW champion Alistair Overeem versus Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett versus Brett Rogers.

The event aired on Showtime and took place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. It featured Strikeforce HW GP first round bouts between Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum & Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers. The other fights on the main card were Jorge Masvidal vs KJ Noons, Daniel Cormier vs Jeff Monson, and Chad Griggs vs Valentijn Overeem.

The prelims portion of the event was aired on HDNet and was headlined by Justin Wilcox vs JZ Cavalcante. The other fights on the prelims were Conor Heun vs Mango Almeida, Nah-Shon Burrell vs Joe Ray, Isaac Vallie-Flagg vs Brian Melancon. Todd Moore vs Mike Bronzoulis – which took place after the main event, and did not air on TV due to time constraints.

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Fighter Disclosed Payouts

Fighter payouts were not disclosed for the event.

Attendance and Gate

MMAJunkie reports that Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum achieved an attendance of 7,639 for a gate of $543,060. The numbers falls inline with most Strikeforce shows that don’t feature Fedor, who has consistently been able to break 10,000 in attendance and the $1M gates.  In fact, this was the best gate Strikeforce has ever done outside of San Jose that did not feature Fedor.

- 11,757 spectators, “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum” (June, 2010)
- 11,287 spectators, “Strikeforce HW GP: Fedor vs Silva” (February, 2011)
- 9,059 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg” (January, 2011)
- 8,635 spectators, “Strikeforce: Houston” (August, 2010)
- 8,196 spectators, “Strikeforce: Nashville” (April, 2010)
- 8,136 spectators, “Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery” (May, 2010)
- 7,639 spectators, “Strikeforce HW GP: Overeem vs Werdum” (June, 2011)
- 7,559 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons II (October, 2010)
- 7,146 spectators, “Strikeforce: Henderson vs Babalu II (December, 2010)
- 7,123 spectators, “Strikeforce: Feijao vs Henderson” (March, 2011)
- 7,010 spectators, “Strikeforce: Miami” (January, 2010)
- 6,500 spectators, “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley (April, 2011) *Estimated, no official release*
- 5,259 spectators, “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” (June, 2010)

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Ratings

MMAJunkie reports that Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum averaged 624,000 viewers (1.7 rating) and peaked at 719,000. The average number was good enough to make it the second most watched (average audience) Strikeforce event on Showtime, only trailing Silva vs Fedor (741K), which was just set back in January of 2011 .

Interesting to point out that Nick Diaz now has 2 of the top 5 most watched MMA events for Strikeforce on Showtime. It also marks another extremely successful event – on the television side – for the promotion, which has been riding high on momentum in 2011. It is also key to note that the 4 big Strikeforce events in 2011 have placed in 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th in terms of most average viewership for an MMA event on Showtime ever. Strikeforce events in 2011 now hold 4 out of the top 5 most watched MMA events on Showtime.

- 741,000 viewers (1.1 million peak), “Strikeforce: Fedor vs Silva” (February, 2011)
- 624,000 viewers (719,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum” (June, 2011)
- 576,000 viewers (856,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Carano vs Cyborg” (August, 2009)
- 561,000 viewers (853,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Cyborg” (January, 2011)
- 528,000 viewers (806,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Daley” (April, 2011)
- 517,000 viewers (peak not available), “Strikeforce: Miami” (January, 2010)
- 412,000 viewers (700,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum” (June, 2010)
- 412,000 viewers (520,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Feijao vs Henderson” (March, 2011)
- 367,000 viewers (470,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Houston” (August, 2010)
- 350,000 viewers (509,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Diaz vs Noons II (October, 2010)
- 341,000 viewers (465,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Henderson vs Babalu II (December, 2010)
- 308,000 viewers (448,000 peak), “Strikeforce St. Louis: Heavy Artillery” (May, 2010)
- 164,000 viewers (197,000 peak), “Strikeforce: Los Angeles” (June, 2010) [Special Wednesday Show]

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Storylines

Strikeforce Hosts Second Major Show Under Zuffa Ownership, First HW GP Event

- The event had a good amount of hype, as can bee seen by the great viewership numbers Showtime was able to pull that night.  Although many were anticipating the HW bouts between Overeem vs Werdum and Barnett vs Rogers, the main event and co-main event did not deliver good quality fights.  Barnett was easily able to take Brett Rogers down and dominate him with his wrestling and ground game.  Overeem vs Werdum was an odd fight, where Werdum wanted no part of Overeem’s standup game and applied a strategy where he would try for a takedown, pull guard, or try to sucker Overeem into his guard, a strategy he was able to successfully execute against Fedor.

The odd part of it all is that when Werdum chose to strike with Overeem, he was doing pretty well, better than most predicted.  According to FightMetric, Werdum out-landed Overeem in significant strikes (43-32), total strikes (62-46), head strikes (51-31), and leg strikes (7-2). Overeem only bested Werdum in body strikes (13-4).  In terms of grappling, Overeem did not attempt a single submission while Werdum attempted 12 and landed 1.  As a result, FightMetric awarded the decision to Werdum 29-28, though if you watched the fight live, it appeared that Werdum was afraid of Overeem and openly pleading for Overeem to come into his guard did not please the judges nor the fans, both in attendance or at home watching.

Both Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem came out of the show not looking so great, which hopefully should not affect the next round since the match-ups are excellent.  Josh Barnett will take on Sergei Kharitonov while Alistair Overeem will face Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, probably the fighter with the most momentum heading into the second round after defeating Fedor handedly in their first round fight.

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Strikeforce Imposes Sponsor Fee

- Just weeks before the event took place, it was announced that Strikeforce sponsors would have to pay a sponsor fee, similar to what the UFC does in that regard.  The announcement of the fee put fighters in a tough spot, where they had sponsors already lined up for the event but after the “fee” was adopted, those sponsors dropped out.  The notion was that sponsors that have grown with the fighters in small shows and supported their endeavor in pursuing MMA were dropped once the fighter reached the “big stage”, which is a shame because most fighters would not be able to get to Strikeforce or the UFC without those same sponsors who gave them a revenue stream when they were just starting out.  Again, as a business decision, it makes perfect sense for Zuffa, but this is one of those odd transition nuances after Zuffa purchased Strikeforce. Both the fighters and sponsors now have to adjust to the new policies enforced by Zuffa.

Post-Event Notes

- The next major show was announced during the event, Strikeforce: Fedor vs Henderson which takes place in Chicago and will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs Dan Henderson, Marloes Coenen vs Miesha Tate for the women’s welterweight title, Tim Kennedy vs Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley vs Tyron Woodley, and Tarec Saffiedine vs Scott Smith.  The prelims include Sarah D’Alelio vs. Ronda Rousey and Alexis Davis vs. Julie Kedzie.

- Strikeforce was granted a Nevada promoter’s license and is planning four Las Vegas events in 2011.  The Challengers events will be permanently moved to Las Vegas (Palms Casino Resort), starting with Strikeforce Challengers 17: Voelker vs. Bowling 3 set for July 22. Strikeforce also has an August 12 event booked for the same venue.

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Twitter and Google Trends

- Good news for Strikeforce here, as the key words “Overeem”, “Werdum“,  “Barnett”, “Brett Rogers“, “Noons“, “Masvidal”,  “Monson”, “Cormier”, “Chad Griggs” and over on HDNet in the prelims Justin “Wilcox“, and “Joe Ray“ were all top twitter trends during the evening of the Strikeforce: Overeem vs Werdum event. The event trended so well (best ever for Strikeforce and for a Showtime MMA event), that for the first time in Strikeforce history, their announcers “Gus Johnson“, “Frank Shamrock” and “Mauro Ranallo” were all trending. Even Strikeforce cage-side guest “Michael Irvin” was a trending after a few seconds of air-time on Showtime.

- “Strikeforce heavyweight tournament” was the sixth most “hot search” on Google that night according to Google Trends.

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Sponsor, Promotion and Marketing Watch

- All the usual sponsors where there for this event: Rockstar, GoDaddy, MusclePharm.  “Blowout Cards” and “Training Mask” also had some presence sponsoring fighters.

MMA Junkie reports the salaries and bonuses for this past Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale held at the Palms Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Via MMA Junkie:

Tony Ferguson: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Ramsey Nijem: $8,000

Clay Guida: $74,000 ($37,000 win bonus)
def. Anthony Pettis: $10,000

Ed Herman: $48,000 ($24,000 win bonus)
def. Tim Credeur: $10,000

Kyle Kingsbury: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
def. Fabio Maldonado: $10,000

Chris Cope: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus)
def. Chuck O’Neil: $8,000

Jeremy Stephens: $40,000 ($20,000 win bonus)
def. Danny Downes: $4,000

George Roop: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Josh Grispi: $15,000

Shamar Bailey: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus)
def. Ryan McGillivray: $8,000

Clay Harvison: $16,000 ($8,000 win bonus)
def. Justin Edwards: $8,000

Scott Jorgensen: $29,000 ($14,500 win bonus)
def. Ken Stone: $5000

Reuben Duran: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Francisco Rivera: $4,000

Bonuses were also handed out to Tony Ferguson, Reuben Duran, Kyle Kingsbury and Fabio Maldonado. Not only did Ferguson win TUF, but he earned KO of the night honors. Duran earned submission of the night and Kingsbury and Maldonado won Fight of the Night. Each received an additional $40K for their efforts.

Payout Perspective:

Interesting that the former WEC lightweight champ only had a $10K base for his featured bout against Clay Guida. Also, after a lengthy abscense “Short Fuse” Ed Herman netted $48K  A disappointing night for Pettis who lost his shot at Frankie Edgar’s title. As a result, Guida may be back in the title picture. Hopefully, all who were watching noticed the Clay Guida Fathead. An interesting sponsorship deal for Guida. He certainly is an identifiable figure.