MMA Junkie reports the bonuses for The Ultimate Fighter Finale 14 which took place Saturday night at the Palms in Las Vegas.
Ultimate Fighter cast members John Dodson, Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez each scored bonuses which were $40,000 each. Brandao actually received two bonuses for submission and his Fight of the Night with Dennis Bermudez. Dodson won for his knockout of TJ Dillashaw.
In addition to the TUF Finale fight night bonuses, cast members Louis Gaudinot, Dustin Pague, Dodson and Bermudez won $25,000 each as a result of TUF 14’s fan voting for best KO, Sub and Fight on the show. Gaudinot and Pague won for Best Fight, Dodson for KO and Bermudez for Submission.
The Bisping-Miller main event looked better during the show than in reality as Miller looked tired as Joe Rogan described the fatigue as an “adrenaline dump.” Although scheduled for five rounds, the fight was a one-sided beatdown which mercifully was stopped. It will be interesting to see where both fighters go in the middleweight division after this result.
MMA Junkie also reported that UFC officials stated that attendance for The Pearl at the Palms was 1,649. No gate was reported as of yet. Earlier this year, TUF 13 at the same venue garnered 2,053.
Payout Perspective:
Despite the lackluster main event, the TUF 14 Finale had very good finals which displayed the reasons why fans should be excited about the bantamweight and featherweight divisions. The two runner ups will likely be in the UFC in the near future. The lower attendance figure (as compared to TUF 13 Finale in June) is likely due to college football and the Cotto-Margarito fight.
It is not known now whether the TUF bonuses will continue next season. The bonuses this season were a carrot for the fighters to take chances and put on exciting fights. The bonuses were an improvement by the UFC to help boost ratings. We will see if the UFC decides to continue this with Fox.
Good season and a fitting end to TUF on Spike. I enjoyed the card, which was full of interesting fights as they positioned themselves for a chance in the UFC 135 and 145 (possibly 125) divisions. The TUF finals were action packed, I thought Edwards beat Fergusson, but I was not outraged (well, 30-27 on 2 cards, cm’mon man). The coaches fight was always just a curiousity, I did not know if Miller belonged with the division elite, and he does not, although he put on a good first round. It was nice to see the coaches fight on the free card instead of PPV, although if it had been Bisping v Sonnen it still might have gone PPV.
Thank you SPike, TUF, and the UFC for 14 interesting seasons. Here is looking forward to FX, TUF-Live-ish, and the UFC for hoepfully 7 years and Fuel’s version of the internation TUF.
One more comment re the TUF 14 Finale. Its interesting that Spike promoted its new reality show, “Inked” on the mat. More interesting is that Spike promoted the Video Game Awards Dec. 10th. The VGAs was on the mat in front of one of the corners. Essentially promoting a program that will be competing for viewers on Dec. 10th.
Are you referring to the prelims that is going opposite of the VGA’s? I doubt anyone cares what the ratings are to the prelims. Dana has made it clear the only reason the prelims are on tv is because the fans want them. It seems the UFC doesnt look at them as any type of importance or value. This is reenforced by how they will throw them on any network or any median on a moments notice. They do not try to get ratings with them. But there is a following who want to see them. The VGA may take some viewers but the prelims are out there to be seen and keep the hardcore fans happy.
Prelims is one of the things i think Dana doesnt get enough credit for from fans. He goes out of his way to try and make sure we can see them. When he couldnt get them on in the past people complained. Now he uses facebook, UFC.com, ION, Spike, etc to show them and he gets no appreciation.
I debate the few that have said Miller took round one. He had MB in a interesting leg guard but Bisping was still landing shots. Judges scored landed blows, Miller landed no damage besides the headbutt which I think was totally accidental.
Miller IMO is too loud and I find redundant and boring. His media efforts trump his training clearly. I dont think I have ever seen a fighter at this level gas so badly in a marquee fight. I was embarrassed for him. If it was an adrenalin dump that also shows the sign of inexperience which he can use with his fights from old UFC, Dream et al
Plus all the hyping and claiming he did prior…. he still could of lost and built his cache if he fought well. Instead he lost and maybe all lost his relevancy. Shame because dude has a solid BJJ approach but his mouth and ego I think distracted him from what its all about. The fight and who pulls the W
Great comments and great information. I thought this was a good TUF season, though I still prefer to watch bigger fighters (Lt HWT, HWTs). The final fights were great and will keep me following Diego (I’ve had enough of the other Diego), Bermudez, and Dodson (though his behavior on the show as edited was peculiar).
I love the undercard fights and am annoyed when I have to watch them online. I am part of the hardcore (I watched prefight on Fuel and undercard on fbook etc for @UFConFox), but realize Dana and team are going to have to evolve the sport once again to get coverage on par with NHL, Golf, Tennis, etc.
Thanks to all for your information and insights.
Beginning in 2012, all prelims will be televised for all cards, either on FX or Fuel.
I know Spike has indicated before that they also requested TUF alums on their prelims, but I have not heard how things will change next year (some cards may have all prelims on Fuel while others may have 2 on FX and the rest on Fuel). It will be interesting.
I always felt it strange that prelims were never focused on more by UFC, but maybe brainsmasher is correct. I thought it is a great way to get people interested, but maybe Dana knows that those prelim eyeballs weren’t turning into PPV buys. With more focus on the broadcast platform now, it is good to see higher quality fights moving to TV as opposed to 2nd or 3rd fights on a PPV.
Excited for the PPV this weekend, and will be watching the Prelims on Facebook and Ion (when I am not driving my kids around). I’m only sorry it is the last 9pm PPV.