MMA Junkie reports the attendance, gate and bonuses for UFC Fight Night 37 which occurred Saturday afternoon in London, England. Alexander Gustafsson scored two bonuses as he defeated Jimi Manuwa in the main event.
Dana White announced attendance of 14,604 and a gate of $2,000,056 which occurred at London’s O2 Arena. It placed fourth out of the 5 UFC events held at the venue (the other 4 were PPVs) in attendance and gate.
The fight bonuses were awarded to Alexander Gustafsson, Jimi Manuwa and Gunnar Nelson. Each received $50,000 each. Gustaffson and Manuwa earned FOTN and Nelson and Gus received Performance Bonuses.
Payout Perspective:
It was the first major event on Fight Pass so there was a portion of UFC fans that did not witness the fights. The event featured Alexander Gustafsson which was somewhat controversial as he is next in line for a shot at the Light Heavyweight title. I say controversial since if the UFC is to promote top fighters it should make the fighters marketable and have them fight to the biggest available audience. With a paywall (despite the opportunity to sign up for a free week trial), some UFC fans probably didn’t see UFC Fight Night 37. Thus, most fans will only recall his loss to Jon Jones as his last fight and not his impressive victory Saturday.
Of course, the UFC has its reasons for putting Gus on Fight Pass. He’s a quality fighter and with Fight Pass now available internationally, it would attract more fans to give Fight Pass a try.
Watched this fight live, for free on cable, in Canada. Interesting choice all fights are shown on Sportsmet in Canada, makes for no reason to get fight pass here.
I did not purchase fightpass. I do not think it will have any impact on a potential purchase by me if there was a Jones v Gust rematch. I was able to read enough to reach the conclusion that Gust still deserves another shot.
However, I have no positive position on any other fighter on the card. I looked at the results, but without seeing them fight I am not any more inclined to be interested in their next fight. Not that I am less inclined based on my knowledge of the fighters themselves, but the passage of time does make some names prior performance fade (ie Brad Pickett or Micheal Johnson). For me, other than Gust or a Manw win, nothing was likely to move the needle anyway on watching the next card or purchasing a PPV. Hearing the results of this card made me no more inclined to purchase FP than I was before. The less access Ihave only makes me become less of a UFC fan, not a stronger one. I did watch my tape of RFA and found a XFE card on comcast, so I got my fill of MMA for the week anyway.
How exactly are you getting less access? You are really coming off like all the bitter kids on the internet. This is ALL extra events created and put on Fight Pass. IF you don’t order it you lose nothing. Nothing is being taking off of FS1, FS2, FOX, or PPV. The UFC is doing 10 more events this year and airing non US TUF’s on fight pass. Given their position. I bet there will be even more events added next year to fight pass and more the year after that. Seeing as how FS1 isn’t becoming the UFC network anytime soon. Fight Pass is the only logic option for the UFC except not giving us a way to see them at all. Lucky for us fans the UFC has been very good about making sure its fans have access to ALL of their fights.
BS,
Less access by my choice not to purchase FP. Truth be told, there has only been, and will likely to be going forward from what I have seen of projected fight cards, only 1 fight per FP card I would like to see. It is my choice not to purchase.
I hope UFC and the fighters do well with FP. This is not a complaint, UFC is business, it is their option how they distribute their product, Only time will tell if they are trading short term profit from FP vs long term ratings and PPV buys. Way too soon to draw any conclusions.
Ughhhh. I hate, hate, HATE how the ME guys always get the bonuses. If it’s a tossup, I’m a strong believer that the lower-card guys should be the ones getting the bonuses. I always find it EXTREMELY mind-boggling and infuriating. But it wasn’t even a tossup this time. How does Manuwa deserve 50k over Pickett, Seery or Barnett?? Unless the lower-card guys get comparable lockerroom bonuses, it is completely unjustifiable. I’m definitely not a Sampson/saldatheif/etc. troll (I’m guessing many of them are the same person), but as I’ve said before, the UFC is becoming extremely hard to defend, and are losing me.
AK,
Dana has admitted in the past that he doesn’t always watch all the undercard fights. Im not sure what the solution is. I know he let the fans vote once and was not happy with the outcome. Maybe let the media vote.
Wooow, that makes me hate DFW all that much more. Yea, great idea about letting the media vote. Or how about letting Silva and/or Shelby then decide? Anyone but the scumbag DFW.