UFC 94 Gate and Bonuses
February 1, 2009
MMAWeekly has the numbers on how UFC 94 did at the gate and attendance-wise:
“We did a gate of $4.3 million, 14,885 people,” he said at the post-fight press conference. “This thing was more than a sellout. The casino was scrambling today to add more seats. Other casinos were looking for tickets. This was the craziest event we’ve ever done, by far.”
A strong performance. It has been reported in various outlets that this was the highest attended MMA card at the MGM Grand. Generally a number that big would yield a gate over $5 million, but the UFC took efforts after the Couture vs Lesnar fight to scale back slightly their pricing structure. Under any circumstances, the quote offered up by White indicates a highly elevated interest in the fight that probably will extend over and portend of good things when the PPV numbers come rolling in.
Bonuses
John Howard and Chris Wilson received $65,000 in Fight of the Night Bonuses for their showdown. Clay Guida and Nate Diaz also received bonuses of $65,000 a piece for their contest.
Knockout of the Night and $65,000 went to light heavyweight Lyoto Machida for his KO of Thiago Silva. None of the ten bouts on the fight card ended in submission, therefore no bonus was issued.
