UFC 182: Payout Perspective

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective.  This time we take a look at the much anticipated fight between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.

Jones dominates Cormier

In one of the most anticipated fights in some time, Jon Jones dominated Daniel Cormier.  It was clear that as the fight progressed, Cormier looked like he lost confidence and Jones had broke his will.  Say what you want about the crotch chop at the end, Jones is the best there is right now and he knows it.

This guy may be next for Jones:

pic.twitter.com/tvFMJ8wd0i

— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) January 4, 2015

Then again, there are rumblings that Jones may face Cormier’s training partner and friend Cain Velasquez. Although Cain is a heavyweight, Jones looked huge compared to Cormier.

Cerrone decisions Jury

One might have thought that this fight would have been a great lead-in to the main event.  Cerrone is a guaranteed “bonus” of the night, right?  Well, not so much tonight.  Except for a bunch of meaningless kicks by Cerrone to Jury, this was a forgettable fight.  Cerrone was disappointed despite winning.

Attendance and Gate

MMA junkie reports the attendance at the MGM Grand at 11,575 for a gate of $3.7 million.  There was no news on comps although the UFC were giving away tickets for the event. The gate failed to crack the top 5 of UFC events at the MGM Grand.  Notably, UFC 168, which occurred at about the same time last year, drew 15,650 for a gate of over $6.2 million.

Despite the low attendance, Dana White was bullish about the PPV buys as he indicated that the 750K PPV buys he predicted pre-event were trending to exceed his expectations at the post-fight press conference.  Although this cannot be confirmed, there were multiple reports that movie theaters and sports bars were full or near capacity.  This will not help contribute to the PPV buys but shows the amount of interest.

Bonuses

Bonuses for UFC 182 went to Paul Felder, Shawn Jordan, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.  Arguably, Felder was the most impressive fighter of the night (next to Jones of course) with his spinning back fist KO of Danny Castillo.

For you gamblers, Felder was the biggest underdog to win at +190 according to the MGM Grand.

Cody Garbrandt was shut out of receiving a bonus despite a strong UFC debut against Marcus Brimage.  Garbrandt was a +130 underdog.

Pre-Fight Promotion

While it was not as expected, the media day brawl back in August was the best thing to promote this fight.  Perhaps it would have picked up more steam if the fight actually happened in September than now.  Still, the promos for this fight were outstanding.  It centered on Jones and Cormier’s brawl and the subsequent ESPN dust-up caught on camera.

The UFC Embedded episodes included Jones attending a high school wrestling practice and Cerrone’s action sports (snowmobiling, car racing and flying).  It also included a backstage altercation between Jones and Cormier.

Tyson Griffin also captured the animosity on his Instagram as the two camps passed each other here and here.

The UFC special Bad Blood featured the Jones-Cormier feud.  Although this episode which aired on FS1 and replayed FX drew praise and hype from MMA folks, in my opinion, it amounted to a regular HBO 24/7 episode.  There was also a countdown show and an “All Angles” show featuring Cerrone.  Essentially, the episode was a “getting to know” Donald Cerrone show.

In addition to the television commercials, there were extensive radio buys which do not usually occur for a standard UFC PPV.

UFC 182 was shown in movie theatres across the country. From surveying social media, it appears that many people actually went to see the event at theatres. 

Also, bars across the country seemed to be packed for this event.

Sponsorships

The octagon had UFC sponsors, MusclePharm, Fram, MetroPCS, Harley Davidson, Cimemax’s Banshee, Toyo Tires and Bud Light in the center.  There was also signage for UFC 183 featuring an image of Anderson Silva sitting in a “spider” position.  Banshee also had the fighter prep point. There was also a commercial on the Cinemax show during the event.   

Cerrone was sponsored by Budweiser and attempted to giveaway beer on the Las Vegas Strip on New Year’s Eve until the UFC stopped the promotion.  Prior to the fight, it was announced that he had signed a sponsorship with Fram.  

Happy New Years everyone! If you need me I’ll be pulling a wagon down the strip handing out @Budweiser Come and get it — Cowboy Cerrone (@Cowboycerrone) January 1, 2015

Cormier had “Break Bones” t-shirts for the event which were made by his sponsor, CageFighter.

Jones sported his new Reebok sponsorship.  Jones’ trunks appear to be what his official uniform may be. He also has his own share of shirts from UFC.com.

Odds and Ends

• To the dismay of some people, the UFC increased prices of its PPVs to $59.99 HD for the first three events of 2015.
• The PPV was short on time which is odd since there have been at least two times in recent memory where a UFC PPV has exceeded 3 hours. UFC 181 had five hours squared away instead of the normal four hour block on PPV.  One would think if people were going to pay $5 more, the UFC would pay for an overrun to get some in-ring interviews of the co-main and main eventers.  Regardless, look for big ratings for the FS1 post-fight wrapup.
• CM Punk was on the FS1 pre-fight show and did a Q&A before the weigh-ins. The company is getting the most out of Punk already and putting him out there for 182 made sense.  How much will they use him before he actually fights?
• The commission threatened the fight purses of Jones and Cormier if there was any dustup at the weigh-ins. Thus, the awkward weigh-in staredown.
• Steven Seagal was in attendance and “aided” Daniel Cormier prior to the fight as shown in an “Embedded” episode. Doesn’t look like it helped.
• UFC Heavyweight newcomer Jared Cannonier utilized crowdfunding site GoFundMe to raise money for his training camp. He exceeded his goal of $5,000 by raising $6,100.  Unfortunately, he was KO’d by Shawn Jordan.
• Speaking of training camps, Cerrone indicated he paid $20,000 to bring in fighters to spar with him. He is set to make slightly over $100,000 for the fight.
• The UFC announced big additions to its Fight Library with the acquisition of libraries from several promotions.
• We already know, but Conor McGregor is getting a huge promotional push by the company.
• Is the UFC using the “boxing strategy” as many suggest that they highlight one fight to sell for its PPV? This can be done if there is a heated feud, but probably hard to sell as frequent as its PPVs are due to lack of build.

Conclusion

After the event, Dana White indicated that PPV buys were above the 750,000 he predicted pre-event.  There were 500,000 Google searches as of Friday which would indicate a big PPV buy rate.  However, the cautionary tale of relying on Google searches is that Pacquiao-Algieri fight in November drew 500,000 searches yet only drew a reported 300,000-400,000 PPV buys.  But, the promotion of the Jones-Cormier feud alone seemed to create the kind of buzz that got fans that pick and choose purchasing PPV events to buy this one.  Any buy rate number hitting 600,000 (or above) will be a great start for 2015 for the UFC.