John Morgan at MMAJunkie are reporting that last night’s UFN 21: Florian vs. Gomi card held in Charlotte, North Carolina drew 7700 fans to the Bojangles Coliseum for a live gate of $590,685.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – UFC Fight Night 21 wasn’t a sellout, but the night’s 7,700 attendance figure and $590,685 live gate provided the Ultimate Fighting Championship one of its most successful UFC Fight Night events to date.
Payout Perspective:
Just to give you an idea of where the event sits from a gate stand point:
UFN 20: 753,000
UFN 13: 753,000
UFN 15: 700,000
UFN 19: 650,000
UFN 18: 626,000
UFN 21: 590,000
UFN 14: 590,000
Not a bad result at all. Kenny Florian has become a fairly reliable draw for the organization and that’s all the UFC really needs when taking a show to one of the smaller, less-frequented markets like North Carolina.
Pretty good for Florian considering most casual fans don’t know who a thing about Gomi – and many hard core fans consider him past his prime.
Diego,
You are correct. Coming to this bout, Gomi was 2-2 and no one wanted to pay the money he was asking for ($100K-$150K) for a fading star. Florian sold the main event on his own really, the undercard was really good for an UFN event though.
Kenny has appeal to a lot of casual fans. I put money on Gomi (don’t ask) and when my wife found out I was betting against Florian she went through the roof. She doesn’t follow the sport like I do, but she knows Kenny Florian and likes him.
I dont think Gomi is that much past his prime. To Old is becoming a excuse to fall back on for everyone who loses when they left Pride. The biggest Problem Gomi has in his last few fights is he is finally on a level playing field. Pride created the 160 division soley for Gomi and Sakurai. The weight ins were not official and not made public. I dont believe Gomi ever made weight in Pride. Same for Sakurai. Sakurai couldnt even make 160 when Pride was in Vegas. They forced Danzig to accept 164 or not fight. There is a good chance Gomi never was even forced to cut weight at all while his opponent was wasting away in the steam room only to still be giving up a lot of weight. Dream didnt create their division around him. They use 155 and have their own poster boys and Gomi didnt get special treatment and he didnt look so good without the advantages. Last night Gomi looks in very good shape because he actually had to make 155. You can look at Gomi in Pride and clearly see he was much bigger in Pride moreso than the 5 lbs suggest.
Most of the Pride guys who lose are not losing becuase they are old. They re finally competing in a promotion that is always looking for the best fighters in the world and the next generation. Pride didnt do that and they had the same guys for almost a decade with no up and comers.
Gomi landed his best punch and it wasnt enough by itself. HE couldnt get a takedown and he couldnt stop a submission. HE was slow and got picked apart by the jab and couldnt land much throughout the fight. All this would have happened at any point of his career becaus ehe was always slower with overrated ground skills. He isnt fighting 1xD guys like Azerado, Kawajiri, etc. Guys of today are decent at everything and train hard to boot.
Pride has a curtain group of guys. Out of any group someone will rise to the top. But if noone is allowed in that group all you can say is so and so is the best of that group. How they do compared to everyone else in the world isnt known until they leave. They left and havent done well. Pride was fun and i watched every event. But it shouldnt be compared to any other promotion because they had their own ways of doing things.
Brain Smasher,
It’s hard to say, but the era of Hughes, Chuck, Wandy, Nog, Couture, Gomi, CroCop’s is coming to an end soon. New fighters that are younger, athletic, stronger, and better rounded fighters will start to take over.
Only dominant fighters doing well right now from the previous era are Fedor, GSP, Silva, and Penn. If you look close enough, those are also well rounded fighters who haven’t taken much damage throughout their careers.
Shogun, Lil Nog, Rampage, and Anderson Silva are still representing very well for the PRIDE guys. Lyoto came over from K-1 Heros and Jungle Fight. =)
Jose, spot on. Don’t forget about Henderson in the mix as well. And it’s good you pointed out the UFC champs from the same era – Tito, Chuck, Couture, Franklin, Hughes all just about done being on top. It’s ABSOLUTELY NO difference. All those fighters were the best a few years ago, but they all fought major wars.
The difference is Tito, Hughes, Randy, and Chuck were proven to be on their way out because the UFC has always brought in the best fighters it could. They were always looking for the next big thing. Was Pride? Dont lie to yourself you know the answer to that. The last “prospects” Pride brought in were Aleks and Sergei in 2001. They went the next 6 years with the same guys fighting over and over again. You never knew when a guy was washed up because he was fighting other aging fighters with no new blood to compare them to. Then Pride brings in a guy like Sudokuju and he KOs to of their top guys in minutes. Not because he was any good. But because the entire Pride roster was used to fighting the same fighters they had seen a 100 times. Not all Pride fighters were overrated. A few were very good. BUt you couldnt tell the legit from the fakes until they left. Now we see Lil Nog was legit and Shogun. But most of the others were a product of the “bubble”. Cro Cop didnt get old. He spent his MMA career in the one place in the world were a 1xD kickboxer could win.
Also you tend to mesh modern fighters with older veterens. Penn, GSP and Fedor dotn belong in the same group. Fedor was around years before the other two. The UFC dont have guys at the top as long as Pride did. To be honest the only reason Chuck, Randy, and Tito are still around is their name value. They are to popular to get beat over and over and release them only to have them join a rival promotion an ddraw them fans. So the UFC gets them a favorable match now and again to keep them looking legit. But they also dont refuse to bring in young fighters just so these guys can stay champs.
IF Pride didnt go out of business they would have the same guys now as they did in 2007. Fedor #1, Nog #2, CroCop #3, Barnett #4, Hunt #5, Aleks #6, Sergei #7, Yoshida #8, Werdum #9, and Herring #10. Nothing would have changed and people would still be claiming that Heath Herring would own Santos, Gonzaga, Vasquez, Lesnar, etc and be champion. That is unless Sudokuju didnt beat everyone of them. LOL
Brain smasher, I i was always an MMA fan and started watching UFC before Pride, but the reason i liked pride more was that there fights were more exciting. and to say they didn’t try to bring in the best fighters? You’re wrong on that account. Just look at when the UFC and pride were two separate functions not too long ago; Pride had a roster that consisted of wanderlei, arona, lil nog, rampage, shogun, sakuraba, overeem, Vovchanchyn, fedor, gomi, aoki, cro-cop, big nog, henderson, just to name a few, you can call these guys legendary or “killers” in there own right. At that time who can you say from the UFC was tearing it up or legendary? they had chuck, tito, couture, arlovski, tim, hughes, gsp and bj. thats about it. the UFC wasnt bringing in any new talent. as a matter of fact they had many of the same fighters fight each other. chuck and tito, chuck and randy, tito and shamrock. if you talk about nowadays, you’re absolutely right, the UFC is bringing in the best. a couple years ago….NO!