Welcome to a special edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC on Fox 8 from the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington where hometown fighter Demetrious Johnson turned back challenger John Moraga.
Johnson armbars Moraga in 5th
Demetrious Johnson earned a 5th round submission of John Moraga in front of the hometown crowd. Johnson was cruising up 4-0 going into the 5th round built on a relentless motor in which he outwrestled, outgrappled and scored more strikes than the challenger. Moraga was game and defended numerous submission attempts until the eventual end. But it was obvious that Johnson far superior than the former Arizona State collegiate wrestler.
Jake and Rory both lose
Rory MacDonald won a unanimous decision in the Octagon in a fight that most in attendance hated in total. Dana White blasted both fighters in the post-fight press conference which may have been a sign that MacDonald wouldn’t get a title shot (and thus calming any tension with the need to answer the question of fighting his friend, GSP) with this win. Ellenberger looked as though he froze and didn’t press MacDonald at all. In a fight which many thought to be the real main event, it was the least entertaining of the night.
Ruthless Robbie back in title hunt?
Robbie Lawler used a headkick to dispose of late addition Bobby Voelker. For Lawler, its a career resurgence. With the stinker of a de-facto #1 contender fight between Ellenberger and MacDonald, Lawler could find himself in the mix for a title shot in 2014 if the cards fall right.
Carmouche outclasses Andrade
Liz Carmouche was one of the most popular fighters on this card. Similar to the Lawler fight, she dominated the whole fight. Carmouche went from mount to back and it was a matter of time before she ended this fight.
Attendance and Gate
We discussed the attendance and gate in an earlier post. The unofficial totals had it at 7,816 in attendance with a gate of $735,000. Attendance was down from the last two shows in Seattle but this was largely due to the card. As noted earlier, a lot of empty seats on a picture perfect day outside.
Bonuses
The bonuses were $50,000 each with the only controversy being that Melvin Guillard received the KO of the Night over Robbie Lawler which received a highlight on Sportscenter.
FOTN: Trevor Smith-Dave Herman
KO: Guillard
Sub: Demetrious Johnson
Television Rating
The overnight rating for UFC on Fox 8 was a 2.04 for a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demo. This made it the lowest rated UFC on Fox since it began on the network. Still, it won its demo for the night and it aided in launching Fox’s late night adult cartoon shows.
Sponsorships
The octagon sponsors included the usual: MusclePharm, UltimatePoker.com, MetroPCS, TapouT. Dodge Ram, Alienware and Bud Light in the center.
Head and Shoulders and UFC official sponsor Corn Nuts were also on the Octagon mat and bumpers respectively.
As always, Mighty Mouse had XBox 360 as his sponsor. He also sported tights by Australian sports company Body Science. It also touts Ironman Triathlete world champion Craig Alexander (and someone I saw at Lake Stevens, WA at a 70.3 earlier in the week) as an endorser.
Jake Ellenberger sported Virus Athletic Clothing and also longtime sponsor Lunar Pages. He stated in the Seattle Times live chat that he got the Lunar Pages sponsorship after meeting its CEO. It was also announced during the week a sponsorship with Body Glove Surge, an energy shot product.
Promotion of the Fight
The normal UFC Road to the Octagon show the Sunday before the Saturday night fight was excellent in detailing Demetrious Johnson’s training and family life while introducing the audience to John Moraga. In addition, it looked at Ellengerger, MacDonald, Lawler and Voelker. Out of all the fighters it was the Moraga portion that was compelling and made you want to pull for the guy.
Locally, buses in and around Seattle had the UFC on Fox signage with Johnson/Moraga as the headliner for months. During fight week Jake Ellenberger participated in a Q&A session with the Seattle Times. He also had a get together for a sponsor in which fans could attend earlier in the week.
There were multiple ticket giveaways at MetroPCS stores in the area. Most of them were in Puyallup, Parkland and Tacoma…basically Johnson’s neighborhood. Matt Hughes and Ronda Rousey also had signings at MetroPCS stores. For those wondering, the headquarters for T-Mobile (the company that has acquired MetroPCS) is in suburban Seattle, Washington. MetroPCS was the only sponsor with a table promoting itself at the KeyArena.
Dana White also had two ticket giveaways which occurred near KeyArena. One was near the International Fountains for those of you familiar with the Seattle Center area.
Odds and Ends
Maybe these summer events should be in the Eastern time zone. It was sunny and 75 degrees when the first fight started at 1pm. The fights ended and there was still 1.5 hours of sunlight left. Sparse crowd for early fights whereas the last two events had more fans in their seats for the prelims.
Probably not seen on television but Germaine de Randamie and Jessica Andrade were very emotional on their walk outs.
Did you know that there’s a UFC Gym in Seattle? I didn’t until Friday at weigh-ins.
New hero, Manolo Hernandez, the trainer for Liz Carmouche. Very entertaining at open workouts.
At what point does Melvin Guillard have to drop the “Young” from his nickname?
So Seattle fans thought it dodged a boring fight when Brendan Scaub/Matt Mitrione were taken off the card. Then, we get Ellenberger/MacDonald.
Fighters in attendance that did not fight on Saturday night: Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Dan Hardy, Joseph Benavidez, Pat Healy, Cub Swanson, Mark Munoz (coached Ellenberger) just to name a few.
Dana White met Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll during fight week as the Hawks began training camp this week.
More criminal issues: Jerramy Stevens or Jeremy Stephens?
Conclusion
A very entertaining afternoon of fights. Sure, the attendance and ratings were low but you have to think that the UFC knew that this was a possibility. Seattle is a very good market for the UFC and while Demetrious Johnson didn’t draw, its not like there was support on the card for the event.
Seattle has too many young educated/liberal folks who shun this kind of thing as barbaric. those types are usually soft anyway. I’m not surprised attendance was poor.
That is the nicest way of saying “Hippies” I have ever heard.
Jason,
I thought the same thing about Melvin. When they said it on the show. I was thinking “Its about time they called him “Old Assassin””. Then that lead to “Old Ass Assassin”. Not surprising that come to mind. I have been calling Kid Yamamotto, “Man Yamamotto” for years. lol
Hippies are long gone smart guy…the people i described have gainful employment.
Melvin. can still be the “young assasin” because he started his pro career young. accordingly, Couture could be called randy “mid life crisis” couture.
That may be true in Seattle itself, but the Northwest also has a deep hunting & guns culture that I figured would draw more spectators. I’m from Olympia and there are small boxing and MMA events in the casinos and out in town all the time.
Was there a lot of publicity for this fight to try to boost attendance?
That guns culture is more unemployed than the “hippies”. As is typical of their type who live in a trailer.swill beer, and wish they hadn’t closedd the mill. the pacific nw was largely dependent on logging jobs which arent rhere anymore.
That’s not true. In Washington the guns culture is part of the libertarian culture and not really correlated with unemployment.
Maybe you’ve heard of a little company called Boeing? As well as some others called Amazaon and Microsoft. Besides the fishing and agriculture (wine and apples come to mind). Yes, there is also Weyerhauser, but the economy of the Northwest diversified away from logging a few decades ago.
Lots of tech companies here in Seattle area including T-Mobile and a small coffee company called Starbucks. Howard Schultz loved the region so much he decided to sell the NBA team to people from OKC. Whatever happened with that?
But realistically, if you get out from the Seattle metropolitan area some cities are very sketchy but that’s my own opinion.
As far as promotion, there were some radio spots and the ESPN affiliate had Dana White on to promote the event. But the main sports radio station, KJR, was more concerned with Percy Harvin’s hip than anything else last week.
Of course, the logging jobs were shut down by the eco-fascists and bigots.
Ruling class progressive trash.
Salaries are out. DJ made $29K/$29K. Lawler tops base salary with $78K, Jake $52K, Melvin $42K, Herman $37K, Masvidal $33K. DJ tied for fifth with Castillo at $29K
Rory made $24K and $24K
Post on these numbers coming later today.
Its time for DJ to get a new contract. I understand he isnt a PPV star or a big draw but he is a world champ and should be making 6 figures a fight.
I don’t think he should get 6 figures to show. But I think he should get a little more than that. He did win Sub of the Night so he did end up getting over 6 figures for the fight. He also has sponsors. I would lose sleep at night worring about him. He did just fine. For a new division that isn’t drawing. He did well. Not to mention he was paid that for fighting what amounts to a cake walk. So it was very little work involved.
We have boeing and intel here in portland… and the libertarian cause got mixed up with republicans at some point. What i said is very true.
I forgot about nike.
After a quick check ( since i have been assuming that seattle has a lower unemployment rate than washington,just like portlands rate iis lower than oregons )the seattle unemployment rate is significantly lower than the rest of the state. so while everything may be all techy and good in the city, the industrial jobs are not as easily replaced statewide.
Attendance was pathetic because the card was pathetic. Plain and simple.