Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 166 in Houston, Texas which featured the third fight between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.
Cain stops JDS in 5th
Despite a couple shots that hurt Cain early, Velasquez dominated the third fight of the trilogy and eventually stopped JDS who was physically spent and visibly beaten. His face looked like their last fight and despite all of his work; JDS could not muster enough offense against the Heavyweight champion. With the win, Cain solidified his top spot within the division. His next opponent is Fabricio Werdum and while it may not seem like Werdum would have a chance, he is still the one that stopped Fedor at a time many though him to be invincible.
Melendez-Sanchez participate in one of 2013’s best fight
Instead of wasting words on Daniel Cormier’s decision over Roy Nelson, we should focus on a fight that lived up to the hype. Gilbert Melendez defeated Diego Sanchez in one of the great fights of 2013. There was little controversy on the winner of the fight but it was more on the storyline that unfolded during the fight. Sanchez was bloodied from the beginning but was willing to exchange with Melendez. In between the 2nd and 3rd round, Sanchez’s corner told him that he’d have to knock out Melendez to win and told him not to let Melendez “take food away from his daughter.” Sanchez’s facial expressions during the 3rd round were exceptional. When he knocked down Melendez in the 3rd you could see Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta rise to their feet.
The win for Gil has him waiting in the wings for a title shot.
Attendance and Gate:
As previously reported, UFC 166 drew a reported 17,238 for a gate of $2.5 million. Dana White indicated that it was the “third-highest gate in the history of the venue” as The Rolling Stones and UFC 69 (featuring the GSP career-altering fight when Matt Serra upset St. Pierre) were higher at the venue.
Bonuses:
The bonuses of $60K each were as follows:
Fight of the Night: Gilbert Melendez-Diego Sanchez
Submission of the Night: Tony Ferguson
KO of the Night: John Dodson
There were a lot of KOs to choose from on this night but Dodson was probably the correct choice.
Sponsorship:
The Octagon sponsors included mainstays Harley Davidson, MetroPCS, Dodge, Assassin’s Creed, Alienware and Bud Light in the center. MTV’s Jackass movie “Bad Grandpa”, Prestone, AxsTV and the Air Force were also present with signage in the Octagon.
UFC Official sponsor Corn Nuts sponsored the Tale of the Tape for the fights.
Valvoline sponsored the “Keys to Victory” for the featured event on the Prelims between Tim Boetsch and CB Dolloway.
Junior dos Santos was predominantly sponsored by Nike for this fight. This included new shirts and his own line of shoes. JDS was featured in Nike Pro Training ads (h/t FighterxFashion). If you were wondering where you could purchase a Cigano t-shirt, the UFC store carries them. JDS also signed with sports agency 9ine prior to this fight. We shall see what they will do with him after this loss.
Cain Velasquez was sponsored by Affliction, Oak Grove Technologies and Lugz. These sponsors usually sponsor AKA fighters. The one marked change is that Affliction replaced Dethrone as the apparel sponsor for Cain.
Roy Nelson was sponsored by LunarPages, a sponsor recently sported by Mark Munoz and Jake Ellenberger.
Daniel Cormier was sponsored by Cage Fighter.
Adlan Amagov was sponsored by a Law Office in his fight against TJ Waldburger
Promotion of the Fight
UFC Primetime on FS1 did not do very well ratings-wise as the three-part series hovered around 125,000 viewers which likely would suggest that the targeted-fan it wants that would be swayed into purchasing the PPV is likely not tuning in. A part of this could be the lack of promotion for the Primetimes and the fact that FS1 is still is not latching on with many fans. The shows were well-done although it did not do well ratings-wise in comparison to some of the UFC Countdowns on Spike TV.
UFC Countdown also featured JDS and Cain as well as the featured undercards. It is always interesting to me the amount of time the Countdown spends on the main eventers when there is UFC Primetime.
Houston Rockets Dwight Howard took pics with several fighters including Cain, JDS and Diego Sanchez after his fight with Gilbert Melendez. Howard’s pics with Cain and JDS were publicized before UFC 166.
The UFC replayed last month’s PPV on Thursday as part of the run up for this event. It grabbed an average of 449,000 viewers on FS1.
JDS and Cain took part in a global tour promoting this fight.
Post-UFC 166 Headlines
Who’s next for Cain? Fabricio Werdun. The question is what will the UFC do to make this matchup appealing. Werdun can be considered a “giant killer” as he was the one who bet Fedor. But, will anyone buy that he can beat Cain?
Melendez title shot? It was the most exciting fight of the card and while Diego Sanchez received a lion’s share of the appreciation, Melendez left with a solid win and the possibility of meeting the winner of Josh Thomson-Anthony Pettis. While we may argue TJ Grant is due his shot, it’s hard not to think Gil is right there in the mix.
Safety concerns. There were several moments during the event where the athletic commission stepped in to check on fighters including Gil-Diego and JDS-Cain. Whether it cynicism or not, there must be a question whether it would actually have stepped in to stop a fight. Certainly the ref or ring docs could have called off the JDS-Cain fight and the ref in Amagov-Waldburger should have jumped in much sooner. It’s a tenuous balance between saving a fighter from further punishment and giving the fighter a chance. But, it also seems like in some decisions entertainment takes precedence over safety. It’s definitely a hard job to be a ring doc that may be the most hated person in the building if they stop a fight. But, they have a responsibility to the fighter to protect them from themselves. Bloody Elbow has a nice piece on this issue.
Odds and Ends
-The Prelims had some great fights although it may not equate to ratings.
-Does anyone know what Cain’s sponsor Oak Grove Technologies does off the top of their head? Here’s the answer.
-Joe Rogan’s call to stop the fight was echoed by many as TJ Waldburger took some unnecessary shots after he was unconscious before the referee stopped the fight. Shades of Chris Weidman-Mark Munoz although less egregious by the ref here.
-Tough way to go out for Nate Marquardt.
-Diego Sanchez should have copyrighted those “Yes!” chants. Daniel Bryan is making a fortune with that in WWE. I’m half-joking here.
-Speaking of gimmick infringement, Dustin Pague uses the “Diamond” nickname and so does Dustin Poirier.
-If you watched UFC Primetime, you saw Daniel Cormier receive his BJJ Brown Belt the same day that Cain Velasquez received his BJJ Black Belt.
-John Dodson could have hurt his back when he fell on his back on the mat after unsuccessfully doing his run off the cage flip.
-Dodson also had the smoothest move…at the weigh-ins when he took a “selfie” plus 1 with Octagon girl Chrissy Blair.
-Jessica Eye wore a “Straight Outta Cleveland” t-shirt at weigh-ins
-Two Basketball Jersey Sightings at weigh-Ins. First a Dwight Howard jersey and then Sarah Kauffman wearing a retro Hakeem Olajuwon jersey and she even did a “Dream Shake”.
-Not a Yeezy fan? Skip to the Conclusion. As an added bonus I attended the first night of the Yeezus Tour Saturday night featuring Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. Great show although there was a two hour delay for fans to get into the arena due to the set being constructed late. A lot of kinks to be worked out and Kanye must work on his cardio for the rest of the tour as he seemed to gas midway through his two hour set. But, huge props to him for wearing masks during most of his performance.
Conclusion
Cain and JDS have been on the same card the last four times they have been in the Octagon. Their last meeting was at UFC 155.
The last three PPV shows they have been on are as follows:
| Event | Date | Buy Rate |
| UFC 160 | May 25, 2013 | 380,000 |
| UFC 155 | December 29, 2012 | 550,000 |
| UFC 146 | May 26, 2012 | 560,000 |
There’s a trend downward and it will be interesting to see what to expect here. While the card turned out to be one of the best of the year, aside from the Heavyweights at the top, the card didn’t have an attractive undercard unless you were a hardcore fan. With Cain dominating JDS, we could see the start of an Anderson Silva-like run in the division which could help promote Cain as a PPV draw. Moreover, the new deals in Latin America/Mexico and the UFC’s aspirations to have an event in Mexico may prove to help Cain as a draw. Here, attendance does not equate to PPV buys. UFC 136, the last event held in Houston, was to be a big event with an Expo and two title fights including Maynard-Edgar III and the return of Chael Sonnen. Yet, it only mustered 225K PPV buys despite drawing over 15,000 in the building.
Here, I suspect the “Heavyweight factor” and the trilogy aspect gets this PPV up to 500K PPV buys.
Meltzer noted in the Observer when he first reported the 560,000 number for UFC 146 that it was a worldwide number. So if UFC 155’s 550,000 is just a North America number, which I believe it is, then there is no downward trend there.
Bbbbut dana white said it was top to bottom the best card ever!!1! how can mmapayout say different? *Head explodes*
– John Dodson could have hurt his back when he fell on his back on the mat after unsuccessfully doing his run off the cage flip.
——
I think it was not usuccessfull cage flip, I think he wanted to land like that. I have a feeling I already saw him do it a few times exactly like that (but I’m not 100% sure).
aint,
Is it really that complicated? It was a great card and on the whole one of the best sporting events I’ve witnessed in a long time (for any sport). That’s what Dana was referring to when he said it was the “best evah”. Unfortunately fans would only know that if they had decided beforehand to purchase the PPV. Just because the fights turned out great doesn’t mean a record number of people had the foresight to buy the PPV.
So despite your cranial detonation, it is possible to have an amazing night of fights that does not do well in PPVs.
Nothing tops ufc 100. Gsp,lesnar, jon jones,marc coleman,dan henderson,akiyama, bisping, stun gun, tj grant,mir and more all on one card.
I forgot fitch and thiago alves.
Watching coleman beat bonnar was the best moment of ufc 100… no i lied it was hendersons flying h bomb that would put most people into a coma sealed the deal. Anyone who says ufc 100 isn’t the best is fooling themselves.
@Caidel
You may be correct. I’m sure Dodson has taken that fall on his back numerous times perfecting the cage run flip.
UFC Prelims: Avg 628K
One day someone will jump off the cage and this will happen. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/12/15/gramatica_injury_ap/?mobile=no
JDS looked a bit bloated compared to his sharper cut a few years ago, not sure if this is because he’s cycling or not. The speed of his punches were slower than normal, and his ability to move away from the cage was horrible. I hope the UFC is not planning on doing a forth fight, this was was not worth the money. Melendez saved the day for this PPV.
P.S. One of the reasons MMA has declined and plateaued is partly the UFCs fault. No casual fan will take the sport seriously if they have to listen to commentators who appear to be selling a particular opponent over another. Even though Diego showed heart, he was in no way the better fighter. If you were just listening to the audio, you would think that Diego was manhandling Gilbert, watch the fight without sound and you can see how biased the commentating was. Fight metric confirms the fact and the easy win for Gilbert.
http://hosteddb.fightmetric.com/fights/index/4437
Looks like the buy rate might disappoint
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/10/24/5024746/report-early-indicators-point-to-disappointing-buyrate-for-ufc-166
Yup. ufc sucks. no two ways about it. The ufc is something akin to a trash barge that has been set ablaze.
Guru
I agree about Santos looking different. BUt I don’t think it mattered. His striking style is taylor made for Cain. He likes big hooks and upper cuts. His jab is half hearted and only used to set up his looping power shot. He doesn’t have an active jab or footwork. So he leaves his middle open for an aggressive fighter like Cain to come inside at will and get inside his hooks and wear him out. He needs to jab and use his feet to keep Cain outside. Its not his style. He kills guys who stand and bang with him. But not a quicker guys who throws straighter strikes and comes forward. Cain beat him to the punch on the way in and then pushed him against the cage and wore him out.
As for the announcers. You cant really judge fights base on statistics. To many different kind of strikes and levels of damage. You don’t have to have the sound on to think the fight was close. Its important the announcers see the fight as the people watching see it. Fans live and watching on TV don’t see stats during the fight. They go by what they see. When someone lands a big shot or finishes strong. It is left in the mind of the fans. As does the body language of the fighters.