UFC 103: Payout Perspective

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This week, we’ll be taking at look at UFC 103 held this past Saturday, September 19th at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas. The card featured Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort at 195lbs, and was co-headlined by Mirko Cro Cop vs. Junior Dos Santos.

UFC 103 by the Numbers:

Attendance/Gate Figures

Dana White announced that UFC 103 sold-out with an attendance of 17,428 and drew a live gate of approximately $2.4 million.

Fighter Payouts

The last time the UFC was in Texas – April of 2007 (UFC 69) – the commission did not release the payouts. It’s likely a matter of policy.

Fight Bonuses

• Fight of the Night: Rick Story vs. Brian Foster ($65,000)
• Knockout of the Night: Vitor Belfort ($65,000)
• Submission of the Night: Rick Story ($65,000)

Projected PPV Buyrate

The baseline for UFC 103 ironically enough seems to be something similar to UFC 69 – the last show held in Texas – which did approximately 400,000 buys. Attendance for UFC 69 was lower at 15,269, but it drew a slightly larger gate of $2.8 million. The Countdown show was also slightly lower with 365,000 viewers (to UFC 103’s 382,000). Here are some of the factors that could influence the buyrate north or south of UFC 69’s 400,000 buys.

+ UFC momentum. A candidate for MMA story of the year is the UFC’s remarkable success and growth in a downturn economy. The organization is up over 60% YOY from January to August – largely on the heels of the UFC video game and UFC 100 weekend that have generated so much interest.

+ Spike TV lead-in. In a UFC first, the organization aired preliminary matches for a PPV event on free television. The UFC hoped to push even more viewers to the PPV event by giving them a sample of the product and promo-ing the heck out of the PPV portion during the Spike hour. 

+ UFN 19 and TUF 10 coverage earlier this week. The debut of The Ultimate Fighter 10 which broke all sorts of series records in garnering a 2.9 HH rating and 4.1 million viewers likely gave UFC 103 a boost – if they weren’t first turned off by the bloodiest fight in TUF history or the horrible commercial scheduling by Spike.

— Elite boxing competition. The fight between Mayweather Jr. and Marquez was boxing’s most highly anticipated fight since Pacquiao-Hatton earlier this year in May, and the big event likely stole some cross-over fans from UFC 103.

— No main event. In the last three years, UFC events headlined by a title event have averaged 570,000 buys, but non-title events have averaged just 350,000. UFC 69 did 400,000 featuring Matt Serra’s upset of Georges St.-Pierre, and while St-Pierre wasn’t nearly as popular then as he is now, the fight garnered interest as part of the TUF 4 winner’s guarantee.

The UFC has added a considerable amount to its base PPV following since April 2007, but the lack of a title fight and competition from the boxing event will likely ensure it doesn’t cross the 500,000 mark.

I’d estimate a range between 375,000-475,000.

Business Storylines:

– Belfort impressive, MW Champion A. Silva in his sights: Vitor Belfort was extremely impressive in his return to the Octagon – defeating Rich Franklin via TKO in just 3:02 of the first round. By comparison, it took Anderson Silva a similar 2:59 to stop Ace in their first nearly bout three years ago. 

The win was convincing enough that Belfort should be considered somewhat of a legitimate challenge to Silva, but it appears as though he might have to wait as Ed Soares has told Sherdog that he expects Silva to go under the knife relatively soon.

– UFC airs 103 prelims on Spike TV: In a UFC first, the organization aired preliminary fights of the PPV event for free on Spike TV. It was seen as a counter-programming move by some, bent on taking the wind out of Floyd Mayweather’s sails, but it’s also a good way to promote younger fighters. The last thing the UFC wants to do is run into a Nate Marquardt situation again where the promotion gives a title shot to a fighter that has yet to be seen by the UFC audience.

On a related note, Efrain Escudero is showing great potential and could be a valuable asset for the UFC moving forward – especially into the Latino/Mexican market (where he’s already doing work with Bud Light to attract that demographic).

– Prospect watch: Junior Dos Santos, Efrain Escudero, and Rick Story are the latest fighters to make the prospect watch list. Dos Santos demonstrated extremely impressive power and hand speed in stopping Mirko Cro Cop. He looks to be a legitimate future contender in the heavyweight division, and should face another step-up in the competition – maybe Kongo or Gonzaga. The aforementioned Escudero proved that he could finish a fight with strikes and dispatched of Cole Miller with surprising ease. Finally, Rick Story showed a tremendous amount of heart and skill in coming back to submit Brian Foster via triangle choke (from the guard!). He was also compensated well enough: $130,000 in disclosed bonuses for the performance.

– UFC 103 sets American Airlines Arena gross sales record: The UFC announced last week that gross sales revenue had already exceeded every other sporting event in the history of the arena, and was second highest grossing event all-time (next to the Rolling Stones).

– Boxing vs. MMA: The battle between boxing’s elite card and UFC’s standard monthly offering has been talked about almost ad nauseum. Early predictions seem to indicate Mayweather-Marquez will beat out the UFC offering, but it really says nothing about the place and trajectories of either sport in the greater sporting landscape.

– UFC 103 high on entertainment value: It was another great card, providing a multitude of fight results from close decisions, to knockouts, to submissions. Kudos to the UFC.

Note: MMAPayout.com’s increasing Twitter use – especially during live events. It’s one of the best times to engage us if you’re looking to talk the business of MMA.