Welcome to a special edition of Payout Perspective as we take a look at UFC on Fox 5 from the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington. In the main event, Benson Henderson defeated Nate Diaz to retain the lightweight title.
The Smooth One Dominates
Benson Henderson beat up Nate Diaz for 5 rounds to retain his lightweight title. It was impressive considering Diaz looked good in his last three fights. The only controversy after the match was whether or not Henderson had a toothpick in his mouth during the match. Although the Diaz camp did not contest the issue, one might have argued that Henderson was in the Octagon with an illegal object. But, according to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, the Washington state athletic commission will not be investigating.
Up next for Henderson? Maybe one of Diaz’s corner men, Gilbert Melendez will be Henderson’s next opponent. Or maybe we see the winner of Cerrone-Showtime. I wouldn’t mind seeing a WEC rematch.
MacDonald bests Penn
Rory MacDonald was the most hated UFC fighter Saturday night as most of the Seattle crowd was behind B.J. Penn. However, after one round it was obvious that Penn could not conjure up the old B.J. Penn. The crowd just saw the old B.J. Penn.
MacDonald called out Carlos Condit in his post-fight interview in what should be an interesting and entertaining fight.
UFC on Fox 5 wins 8:00pm time slot, receives 3.41 million viewers
With a stacked card and no significant injuries, UFC on Fox 5 did an impressive 3.41 million viewers. It received a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demo. According to Television By Numbers, it won its time slot.
Attendance and gate
KeyArena was a sellout for the UFC’s second time in Seattle. It was announced at the post-fight press conference that attendance was 14,412 for a gate of $1,522,600. The last time it was in Seattle it was for a Fight Night on Spike TV it 13,741 fans attended for a gate of $1.183 million.
Seattle is a good town for the UFC. Not only did the locals come out there were lots of fans that came from out of town and many from Canada. Without an NBA team filling KeyArena, it was nice to see the arena at capacity for a sporting event.
Bonuses
MMA Junkie reports the bonuses for UFC on Fox 5. Each fighter received $65,000 each.
Fight of the Night: Scott Jorgenson and John Albert
Submission of the Night: Jorgenson
KO of the Night: Yves Edwards
A good night for Jorgenson as the very first fight on the card received FOTN and Sub of the Night.
What about Daron Cruikshank-Henry Martinez? Could have been fight of the night and definitely the head kick delivered by Cruikshank could have been the KO of the night.
Sponsorships
The Octagon featured Ultimate Poker, Ryu, Harley Davidson, MetroPCS, Xyience, the UFC.com store, the movie Django and Bud Light in the center.
With two of its sponsored fighters in the co-main event, Bad Boy made a t-shirt to commemorate the event. (via FighterxFashion)
Henry Martinez was sponsored by AlphaNail.com. Nail polish for men? What type of market is there for this?
MetroPCS culminated its Team Metro promotion as Urijah Faber donned the Metro PCS t-shirt at the event. Fans were asked to vote on who it should sponsor next. Fans came up with Faber.
Pre-Fight Hype
As this fight was on the big network, Fox threw its weight behind this production. Not only was the card stacked with good matchups and fights, it supported this through cross-promotion with the NFL. The NFL on Fox promoted Saturday’s event through bumpers in its NFL games. Then, there was the criticized pregame NFL on Fox Sunday skit where Dana White played a homeless man. In addition, Fox aired the UFC Road to the Octagon on Sunday before the fight. It also aired a special featuring Henderson which was shown on Fuel. However, the UFC Prelims were aired on FX instead of Fuel.
The UFC did a media blitz in Seattle a on the day tickets become available to the public. At that time, Benson Henderson made the rounds to local press. This was documented in the Road to the Octagon show. There was not a lot of special local coverage on the night of the fight as it was mentioned on the local broadcasts but shared time with the Pacquiao knockout.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 Makes Statement
A packet of information was sent out to the media in which the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 addressed the fact that UFC fighters Jeremy Stephens and Abe Trujillo were arrested for violent offenses. The information included the legal papers for Stephens and Trujillo. The information included a letter to Fox exec Eric Shanks in which the union requested removal of Stephens and Trujillo from the card. Both of the fighters appeared on the prelims.
As you recall this is the same union that has lobbied against MMA in the state of New York and is active in serving as a thorn in the side of Dana White and the Fertittas through its crusade against the UFC.
Post-Fight Headlines
Rory MacDonald names his next opponent. Carlos Condit should be a stiff opponent for MacDonald and if he does beat Condit would GSP be next or does he move down to avoid a fight with his stable mate?
The last of the Prodigy. Was this the end for B.J. Penn? He has a huge following but what good does it do if he is dominated like he was on Saturday night.
Henderson a force in the division. While many thought that the recipient of the infamous Showtime Kick would be a placeholder for another 155er, Henderson has proven that he is one of the top lightweights in the world. His conditioning, size and flexibility (note the splits during the Diaz fight) are assets that make him a tough matchup for all in the division.
Ronda Rousey headlines a PPV. Although she wasn’t on the card, the announcement that she would be defending her UFC title (a belt she was given at Wednesday presser) made the most headlines.
Odds and ends
Not sure why, but the walk-in shot on Fox of MacDonald in a double-breasted raincoat painted him as the heel even more in his fight with B.J. Penn. He was thoroughly booed when the crowd saw him.
Cooler thing: Henderson wearing the Payton throwback at weigh-ins or Yves Edwards eating a candy bar while on the scale just to show he didn’t sweat making weight. Then again, Henderson had the toothpick thing too.
Mark Munoz did an autograph signing for sponsor Xyience the day of the fights down the street from the KeyArena.
Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Posse on Broadway” blared on the speakers during the Prelims. I didn’t realize how much I liked that song…and how old I am considering I have the single on a cassette tape.
For those wondering, marijuana became legal in Washington on Thursday, December 6th. But I didn’t see (or smell) any indications of anyone partaking in it. If you were wondering, it is still a prohibited substance for the fighters competing so let’s hope that was passed to all fighting.
Seattle Times writer Danny O’Neill a Seahawks beat writer but a UFC fan wrote a piece for his paper. And unlike most mainstream writers forced to cover the sport when it comes to town, he made a point that the UFC is a sport. O’Neill wrote, “The UFC is not some tough-man contest with beer-bellied amateurs fighting for meal money. These are conditioned pros trained in everything from wrestling to jiu-jitsu to boxing.”
Pssh. Rousey is crap. I can only hope that she gets what Kimbo got. I will feel like I am in the Twilight Zone if Dan Miragliotta is the ref for her first fight. At least that mean she will get beaten to within an inch of her life and have the ref not call the fight then give her a win via standing TKO.
Juice,
Rousey would kick your ass. And I would buy that PPV. Whether or not you’re a fan of women’s MMA, Rousey is a top athlete and vicious in the cage. Her fame does not come from beating bouncers at a boat yard but from medaling at the Olympics and backing it up in the cage against some of the the top competitors in the sport. That’s a slight difference from “what Kimbo got”.
Good fights on Saturday though I wish the main event had been more competitive.
RATINGS!!!!!!!! 4.4 Million Viewers Average… Peaked over 6M for the main event…
I suspect that JUICE may in fact be James Ladner.
It did not PEAK over 6 million that is for damn sure
It did 4.4 mill average and peaked at 5.7 million viewers.
Great ratings, good card but that was only a 350k PPV buy card max.
If they ever put GSp or Silva they would probably peak at over 10 mill for the main event but they will never put those two big PPV draws on Fox.
It always cracks me up when someone claims a woman would beat a man. There is situations where it can happen. But it isnt a given like some act like. Just because she is good and beats other small woman and is on tv doesnt mean she can take out men. Even ones who dont train. Your average 200 lb man would give Rousey a beating. That said Juice is a moron.
I’m not claiming that “a woman” would beat “a man”. I’m claiming that an Olympic judoka and MMA champion who happens to be a woman would beat a troll who posts on a website who happens to be a man.
For the record, I think Cyborg would kick Juice’s ass as well.
It’s possible but you don’t know who Juice is. I would say most men would beat them that’s why to me it sounds silly to hear that cliche as if she was Mike Tyson. But In Your support he must be a very small troll to get all upset about Rousey.
The 4.4 million rating and 5.7 million peak of UFC Fox 5 did not represent fully the total viewership of the fights.
These fights were watched by a global audience–most of whom were unmeasured.
The UFC is actually much more popular than the usual TV or PPV ratings indicate and this is a problem for the UFC–unmeasured viewers.
Advertisers assess the value of a broadcast by the number and type of viewers who watch the broadcast. Who counts all the illegal streams on the internet? Yet ads are getting through along with the fights.
In Brazil, in Asia, in Europe, Russia, Canada, Australia, the Philipines–you can be sure there are many uncounted viewers of each Fox or PPV UFC fight card.
But how does the UFC reliably count these global viewers? If they could reliably count these viewers, it would be worth a lot of money to them.
codemaster,
If viewers in the Philippines and Russia are watching online streams from the US with US advertising, it’s not worth much to those advertisers and hence it will be impossible for the UFC to extract any value from it. The UFC needs to sign deals with those markets to get on TV with regional advertising – which they are doing. That regional viewership is getting measured by those regional networks and being monetized accordingly. I don’t know how much it’s worth, but I’m sure it’s something significant especially in Canada, Brazil and the UK.