MMA Junkie reports that Wednesday’s Ultimate Fight Night in Austin, Texas drew 7,724 fans and a gate of $595,900.
The figures are a slight increase from UFC 21 held in March. The event in North Carolina drew an attendance of 7,700 and a gate of $595,685.
From MMA Junkie:
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation should release official figures in the coming weeks. Both the attendance and gate figures rank among the top 10 in all-time UFC Fight Night history.
Payout Perspective:
Despite the main event’s “greasegate”, the UFC put on some entertaining fights. This was another great showing for a show in the middle of the week. Possibly, the gate was helped by all those UT college students in Austin. This was the UFC’s third trip to Texas and based upon the attendance and gate, it will be back.
The “greasegate” issue is dead (thank God) since Palhares and his team have officially apologized, and his team even went so far as to chastise Palhares’s actions. Overall a solid fight night, it will be interesting to see how Oliveira develops in the UFC. Hard to say who Marquardt will get next though with Silva, Sonnen, Belfort, and Okami all locked up for now. Alan Belcher anyone?
“Greasegate” sucked because it robbed us of a good fight. Up until that moment both fighters had shown that they could implement their game plan – Nate landed some good shots standing, and Rousimar got a nice take down and some sub attempts. Things were just getting going when Rousimar decided to break the golden rule of fighting, Protect Yourself At All Times, and instead turn to the ref to complain. Sucks for the fans.
Machiel, Belcher has been calling for a big fight and a title shot for a while. Marquart might be an interesting matchup to put one of them into contention.
Belcher may never fight again due to a detached retina….
At $595,685 it would appear the even was heavily papered.