MMA Junkie reports the attendance, gate and bonuses from Saturday night’s TUF 18 Finale from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
The event drew 4,346 for a gate of $322,742.50. TUF 17’s Finale which featured Urijah Faber defeating Scott Jorgensen and Cat Zingano defeating Miesha Tate drew 5,549 for a live gate of $569,000. TUF 17 was at the same venue as Saturday’s event.
Bonuses for the TUF 18 were as follows:
FOTN: Ryan Benoit-Joshua Sampo
Submission of the Night: Chris Holdsworth
KO of the Night: Nate Diaz
Each bonus was $50,000 each but since Sampo missed weight Benoit received his bonus which gave Benoit, the loser of the match, a $100,00 in bonuses.
Payout Perspective:
Benoit turns out the lucky loser since Sampo missed weight. The moral of the story is to not miss weight. This was best exemplified through the last couple episodes of TUF. The attendance figure was down despite a pretty good main event, Maynard-Diaz.
Jason,
How did the season end re: episode 13?
Kinda fascinated to see what the ratings were.
Except for the Diaz fight that was the worst fight card I’ve ever seen the UFC put on. The women were especially terrible. Most of them just didn’t look like professional fighters. Slow, weak, clumsy, and awkward is not a good look for the UFC.
I watched the first couple fights and had to turn it off myself. I’m really trying but I just can’t get into WMMA.
Oh and did I hear Rousey say wmma is the most exciting thing in the UFC?! I don’t know how the UFC could build a star like that just to see her fail. Her starpower has crashed since the airing of TUF- hero to villain.
A horrible card to top off a horrible season of TUF. I’m definitely not saying every previous season of TUF was good, but this one was definitely pretty bad…so boring most of the time, including the fights.
I thought the fights were great. I do think it was clear some of the females done belong. But that has always been the case. Their division is new and there is a lot of what I call “House wives” still out there fighting. Soon they will be weeded out by athletes or better trained fighters,
That nice girl everyone talked about is not a fighter at all. Even by female standards. She is a Martial artist not a fighter. She looked like she was shadown boxing. Never threw anything hard. Just basically light sparring while she got beat like a punching bag. It was almost like watching Royce Gracie thrown in with GSP.
I have said many times that WMMA is basically like the mens division was in 1995. You see then do things that no experienced fighter would ever do in the mens. There is no control among female fighters. Due to lack of control. There is no punishment for being on the bottom. So they flop around back and forth. Did anyone see the way that nice girl was kicking her legs when she was full mounted like she was drowning? She is supposed to have a BJJ base and she was kicking like she didn’t know anything. The first thing in BJJ they teach you is to relax. Then the Duke girl went for a 1980’s headlock. Its one thing to make a mistake in the heat of battle like leave your neck open on a takedown and caught in a gullitine. But to slowing go for a headlock and methodically give up your back as you try to drag them to the ground. Its just plain clueless. She really thought she has her in some great wizard of a hold. That is the easiest hold to get on someone. But as we see there is a reason why no one does it. It was a miracle when Carlos Newton got Pat Miletich with it and that was almost 13 years ago.
That said the fights are fun even if they lack technical ability right now. I think they make a great addition to the mens fights. With the men its a crap shoot. The fights can be boring or they can be exciting. Due to the lack of control and polished skills and mismatches that come with a new division. The woman fights are more consistant. They can pick up the slack of those occasional events where the Men end up being decision fests. The men are to advanced to see that many mismatches these days.
I do think it took guts putting more woman fights on this card then men, That might be a little much if not for it being a TUF. I wouldn’t suggest it for a Fight Night or a PPV.
I would expect these ratings to be good. The WVU football game that delayed the start of the fights. Went to like triple over-time. Games like that tend to get all football fans to look for that game to see the ending. So the fights should have had a good lead in. Then when it was over the Fight broadcast started in the middle of a pretty good standup fight. I think it was Spencer putting on a clinic vs a game opponent. This might have kept some of that lead in. It will be interesting to see the Main card ratings. BUt also the Prelims. If the Prelims are higher than usual. It would mean they were able to retain fans from the football game. If the prelims dip down to normal. Then the main card ratings would just be the typical fans the UFC travels and the lead in didn’t help much.
@Leon I’m completely like you, I just cannot get into WMMA and Ronda’s statement was (like her) completely ridiculous and asinine. In all walks of life, in ALL sports, the goal is to see who is the best of the best. That is why in virtually all sports, the men’s iteration is exponentially more popular (though I think figure skating is and outlier and that women’s tennis comes closest). Whether it’s basketball, track, swimming, golf, boxing…whatever, people want to see the best of the best. Women fighters are obviously not that. To put it coldly and rational as possible, it’s simply an inferior product — just as college athletics is to pros, high school is to college, and so on and so forth. Fact.
In swimming and track and field for example, where things/results are easily quantifiable, no matter HOW good a women is, they will never be the best in the world. Not even second-best. Not even in the top 10. Not even top one-HUNDRED. And the same applies to fighting. And that’s why not nearly the amount of eyeballs and money are there for women’s sports. Does anybody really believe that of all the sports in the world, somehow a COMBAT sport like MMA is going to break that trend/fact/ceiling? That’s just plain delusional. Is WMMA gonna be as universally ignored and laughed at like the WNBA? No, probably not. But it’s not gonna be some blazing success either, no matter how hard Dana wishes, publicly postures and pushes it.
I’m guessing this does 400k viewers. Why was Roxanne on the main card?? Geez, talk about a shallow division. Her TUF showing was absolutely pathetic. She got “slammed” one foot off the ground, which subsequently led to the stoppage and her screaming.
Agree KA. I don’t get why wmma white knights (like BS) have to always defend it too. I’ve heard these same arguments over the past year:
1) Wmma is new – it has to catch up
2) Wmma girls always bring it
3) Wmma steals the show
No. That’s just logic you can use when you see fit.
If you want to watch the best of the best – wmma is not the answer. The 3 above arguments work for the vocal minority but you’ll see the truth in the ratings which is dictated by the masses.
Personally, and because of their hectic 2014 schedule and new online vehicle, the UFC should create it’s own WMMA league. Start with 2 divisions and move forward.
Basically merge INVICTA into the UFC, and have Shannon Knapp as it’s head/leader. Simply brand it UFC style but INVICTA being the name for the womens.