MMA Junkie reports that a crowd of 1,622 attended Saturday night’s TUF 12 Finale held at The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show garnered a gate of $380,000. The figures are less than the TUF 11 Finale held at the same venue in June.
1,889 fans showed up for the TUF 11 Finale for a gate of $430K. TUF 11 featured Matt Hamill v. Keith Jardine and Chris Leben v. Aaron Simpson.
TUF 12 featured a co-main event of Stephan Bonnar v. Igor Pokrajac. Also, Demian Maia fought former TUFer Kendall Grove.
Payout Perspective:
The Pearl is an intimate place to hold a UFC event. On the broadcast, Joe Rogan reminded us several times that it was a small venue and the Octagon was smaller. It was funny to hear fans clearly. For example, a fan yelled out “Sweep the leg Johnny” during the Hendricks/Story fight. It reminded me of the NWA Wrestling Shows on The Superstation WTBS when the likes of Ric Flair wrestled in front of a studio audience of 56.
Unlike other gate numbers we report, there are no big issues with attendance (unless you argue that fans were watching the Strikeforce event on Showtime). The Pearl is an adequate venue to hold fights for the quality of the TUF fighters mixed in with a couple of known UFC fighters.
That`s a respectable gate for this event. I like the smaller cage but I wonder if it makes it easier or harder to get take-downs versus knockouts.
I really didn’t see a considerable difference on tv but I do think it cuts down on running away from an opponent and encourages engaging. I think that most of these guys train in smaller spaces for grappling and/or standup so I don’t think it’d be a big difference.