Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 188 taking place from Mexico City, Mexico.
Werdum Undisputed HW Champ
Fabricio Werdum defeated Cain Velasquez to earn the undisputed Heavyweight title. It was a submission that ended the long-running win streak of Fedor Emelianenko. It was another submission that ended the Heavyweight title reign of Cain Velasquez. Werdum’s guillotine choke ended the night for Cain who seemed gassed despite continuing to come forward during the fight. It was one final lunge at Velasquez that spelled his doom as it seemed that Werdum had a smile on his face as Cain attempted a takedown but was caught by Werdum.
It has been two years since Cain Velasquez had been in the Octagon. It probably was not rust from not fighting but the altitude of Mexico City that could have been the issue. He spent two weeks in Mexico City but Werdum had been there for over a month.
Werdum could face Andre Arlovski or Stipe Miocic next.
Alvarez escapes Gil
Eddie Alvarez scored a split decision over Gilbert Melendez in an exciting co-main event. Despite having his left eye almost shut after round 1 due to a Gil elbow strike, Alvarez came back in rounds 2 and 3 to eke out the win. It must have been a relief for Alvarez to finally get a W in the Octagon after his ordeal with Bellator and losing in his UFC debut last fall.
The decision could have gone either way and these two probably do not lose too much (Eddie #4, Gil #5) in the rankings after the fight.
Next up for Eddie Alvarez? Possibly Benson Henderson since they were originally scheduled to fight earlier this year. We could see this in South Korea in November.
Attendance and Gate
The event drew 21,036 which was 36 more than the UFC’s event last year in the same venue. No gate was announced so we do not know if how many comps were provided.
Bonuses
Fabricio Werdum, Patrick Williams, Yair Rodriguez and Charles Rosa earned the $50,000 fight bonuses. Werdum and Williams earned the Performances of the Night and Rodriguez and Rosa earned the Fight of the Night.
Promotion of the Fight
UFC Embeddeds provided some controversy as Werdum accused Cain of being a “Fake Mexican.” Essentially, Cain is American first and not from Mexico. It was an interesting accusation that reminded me of Oscar de la Hoya-Fernando Vargas from years past. Of course with recent news events about identity, it would be topical if not for the fact that no one seemed to care.
Similar to UFC 180, Doritos advertised for this fight by having the fighters’ likenesses on Doritos bags. It also offered a contest for fans to meet and greet UFC fighters.
(pic via Josh Sanchez twitter)
Sponsorships
The Octagon sponsors included MetroPCS, the movie Self/Less, Doritos, DraftKings, Bud Light, Cinemex, BetCris, UFC Mobile from EA Sports and Monster Energy Drink in the center.
BetCris is a Mexican online gambling company. Self/Less is a movie from Universal Studios. It received a little promo featuring Forrest Griffin.
Cain added Monster Energy Drink to his list of sponsors which included Affliction, Oak Grove Technologies and American Ethanol.
Notably, Werdum was sponsored by Reddot.
Odds and Ends
Alvarez’s Underground King shirt, originally made by Jaco, is already on sale (i.e., reduced in price) at the UFC.com store.
Two fights ending in the first round on the UFC Prelims meant a very short night of fights on tv. Speaking of which, it was on FX instead of FS1 due to scheduling conflicts.
UFC 188 was shown in select theatres once again. It would be interesting to know how many people actually went to theatres to watch it.
Is Henry Cejudo ready for Demetrious Johnson yet?
Conclusion
In looking at the success of this event perhaps we look at how it did in comparison to past June PPVs. Traditionally, June PPVs have been terrible. The average PPVs from 2012-2014 is 132,000 buys. Google Trends for UFC 188 showed interest from Mexico by mediocre interest from the United States. Still, one would think that it had to improve on last June’s PPV of 115,000. I have an optimistic estimate of 200,000 PPV buys.
200k optimistic? Ouch. I think 200k for a HW title fight is a bomb. Anything below 400k is poor for a fight like this.
A good night of fights on the PPV. I missed the prelims because I didn’t realize they were on FX and did not DVR them.
@Jason
Still tracking google trends? What was the search for 188 compared to the last few?
Didn’t know 200k was optimistic for reigning HW champ LOL. Maybe my OG 225k prediction wasn’t that far fetched.
Where’s DforDelusional? Looks like he really needs 189 to pull through or he could be fucked.
UFC possibly sitting under 3M ppvs, over halfway, with only 1 PPV draw on roster (and SHE’s fighting out of country next).
Delusional it’s time to crash and burn if you already haven’t.
Yeah, Leon the Schmo is all over the place, he’s trying to cover all bases for his predictions so that he can’t be wrong, making multiple predictions. Haha. What an idiot.
No one expected this fight to do big numbers, it was in Mexico and Werdum is no draw. We shall see what the numbers do.
Yeah we are at around 3m buys with the biggest event of the year coming up in July and if that fight goes down as scheduled it is over for The Schmo. Can’t wait for his excuses. 6 ppvs left, only approx 2m buys needed. The only way you could cover this at this point is if this fight gets scrapped coming up in July because if it goes down, it would be impossible for you to win. You are also forgetting a possible mega event in December at MSG with Weidman plus Jones/Cormier. Not to mention the September event with Weidman-Rockhold that should do over 500k buys.
You are so shameless and you know you are going to fail miserably. Get ready for the humiliation you have coming to you moron.
Cotto-Canelo in November = 900k buys
No more Mayweather equals no more 1m buy ppvs. HAHAHAHAHA!!!
You are over-estimating once again just like you likely did for 188 and 187. I’d guess my “range” of 225-300 will be a lot closer to the actual number than your 400k.
Of course you never “estimate” the bombs that will occur… funny how you leave that out in your terrible predictions.
Delusional praying 189 does 1M ppvs… hahaha… better hpe so – plenty of 100-200k stinkers coming up!
Off to YAHOO he goes!
You are completely delusional. Are you aware of anything that you are saying? The beauty of this site is you can’t delete prior posts. You are calling my predictions horrible? That is the most ass backwards thing one could say. Your predictions were literally all wrong with the exception of maybe 187. You are completely oblivious to reality. I was the one who was right for the first 3 ppvs and I am going to be right about the 5m.
“Finally, what’s Cain going to do? 225k?”
“I’d say low 300s at best.”
You see, when I give a number, I don’t give multiple predictions to cover all bases. So by your angle, I could say 300k-400k, now couldn’t I? Pathetic retard, so desperate to be right, you make multiple predictions.
100k-200k stinkers coming up? Name 1. Is Rousey going to be 100-200k? How about Weidman-Rockhold? Pathetic and desperate. The more you talk the worse it is going to be for you when you fail miserably.
Off to LEON THE SCHMO HE GOES!!! New name coming in the Fall of 2015!!
I would think it would do at least 350k
Still waiting for ppv 186 187 and now 188 I guess Dave’s secret contact is out on vacation lol
Hahahaha….no unofficial leaked numbers….must be really low
Haha Delusional thanks for spending time to look that up. Hopefully you can bill the UFC for all the time you waste?
DforDelusional
It took 2 seconds to look up. How much time does it take for you to stalk me on two different websites you anti social freak?
Leon the Schmo!