UFC 191: Payout Perspective

Welcome to another addition of Payout Perspective.  This time we take a look at UFC 191 held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena where John Dodson had his second crack at Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson.

Mighty Mouse dominates Dodson

Demetrious Johnson showed his skills in taking a 5 round unanimous decision from John Dodson.  Dodson squeaked out (maybe) one round according to judges but tired while Johnson showed his great cardio.  It was another dominant showing but once again was not enough to satisfy the crowd.  According to some in attendance, people were leaving before the fight.  Perhaps that’s the reason Johnson lashed out at the fans that booed in a post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani.

pic.twitter.com/rdp3TzcStN

— Dana White (@danawhite) September 6, 2015

The biggest fight in Johnson’s division may be Henry Cejudo assuming he gets past Jussier Formiga.  If not that, I would suggest Johnson moving up to 135 to try and get some competition as its clear he’s lapping the 125 pound division. Arlovski edges Mir Maybe this was the reason why people were leaving early.  Andre Arlovski defeated Frank Mir in the co-main event of the evening.  Mir came in heavy, I mean real heavy, for this fight and it showed as he was almost standing still during the fight.  At one point, Mir got position on the ground on Arlovski and just laid on him until it was broken up.  Not the heavyweight fight that the matchmakers had hoped to see.  Certainly, the forecast was for a quick KO like both had in their prior fights.  Even winning, Arlovski looked down about his performance.  On a six-fight winning streak, Arlovski puts himself in line for the Heavyweight title although he may have to wait until next summer for that considering Fabricio Werdum wants to wait until March to fight.  So, Arlovski will likely get another fight.  Maybe a returning Fedor Emelianenko? Attendance and gate It was not surprising that 191 did not do as well as other PPV events this year in Vegas.  It drew 10,783 fans for a gate of $1.367M.  It was the lowest gate for a UFC PPV since August 2004 at UFC 49.

UFC 191’s reported gate of $1.3 million is the lowest for a Las Vegas-based UFC pay-per-view card since UFC 49 in August 2004. — Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) September 6, 2015

The last time the MGM Grand drew a comparable attendance and gate was last September for UFC 178 which featured Johnson defending against Chris Cariaso. Bonuses The $50,000 bonuses went to Raquel Pennington, Anthony Johnson, John Lineker and Francisco Rivera.  Pennington, Lineker and Rivera were on the UFC 191 Prelims.  Johnson won a bonus for his KO of Jimi Manuwa.  Lineker and Rivera won FOTN for their slugfest which Fox Sports tweeted out for people to see.

Stop everything you’re doing right now. This may be the CRAZIEST :60 seconds of fighting you’ll ever see. #UFC191 http://t.co/j28k6wUOzw — FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) September 6, 2015

Promotion of the Fight

Notably, the UFC Countdown show on FS1 Sunday drew just 83,000 viewers per Sports TV Ratings.  Of course this rating must be taken into consideration with the fact that many people are now watching UFC Countdown online at their leisure.

The Embedded Episodes once again followed the main fighters on the card including following John Dodson to the hospital to go see his wife deliver their daughter.  It also followed Paige Van Zant during fight week and one can tell that the UFC has plans for her future.

The LA Times also ran a feature on Van Zant.  Perhaps the most salient quotes for the article was that Dana White stated that “[s]he has great personality.  People and sponsors love her.”  Also, Van Zant seemed to infer that some of the other fighters in her weight class may be taking PEDs as she noted that some “have very masculine physiques, and I [PVZ] don’t know if you can get those naturally.”

The “Go Big” press conference was a news event of itself with Conor McGregor once again taking center stage.

Sponsorships

Perhaps the most noticeable thing about sponsors for UFC 191 was the absence of Xbox as a sponsor for Demetrious Johnson.  The Microsoft-owned video game platform had been a long-time sponsor for Johnson.  In fact, it was the only fighter it sponsored.  With the Reebok-deal, Johnson had to give up the sponsorship although he could still do promotional work for the company outside of the Octagon.  However, an MMA Fighting article stated that his deal with Xbox was in limbo.

Notably, Xbox promoted its upcoming version of Halo on the PPV as it sponsored the Fighter prep point, octagon signage and Tale of the Tape.

Aside from Xbox, the Octagon had the usual sponsors including Toyo Tires, MusclePharm, MetroPCS, Bud Light, Harley Davidson, Draft Kings and Monster Energy Drink had the center of the Octagon

Odds and Ends

Google trends had 200,000 searches for “UFC 191” which is pretty good.  But does that equate to PPV buys?  Notably, worldwide the search term “Demetrious Johnson” fared better this time around than it did for his last fight in April.  Same for the search term “Mighty Mouse and UFC.”

An anti-domestic violence group called MMA Watchdog staged a rally on Saturday afternoon outside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in opposition to UFC fighter Anthony Johnson.  According to the group, there was a small turnout of 30 people.

The UFC expressed disappointment with Johnson’s actions after a gym confrontation with a woman.  Yet, he was not taken off of UFC 191.  Johnson agreed to counseling and a donation to a women’s charity to make good on the incident.

Joe Rogan’s dual interview of Ross Pearson and Paul Felder was really weird.

Dana White introduced a promo for FX’s “The Bastard Executioner.”  Usually these types of promos are introduced by a fighter.  Unless FX wanted White to do the introduction, one would think putting your fighters out there to do this type of work helps prepare them for future sponsorship work.

Conclusion

All of the indicators suggest that UFC 191 will be the lowest output for PPVs this year.  Even with 3 more PPVs left in 2015, we can predict that those cards will outdo this one based on the level of fights on each.  Are we to blame the UFC for putting Johnson in the main event based on his prior PPV history?  Or, is it Johnson, through no fault of his own that lacks the appeal of other fighters?  Johnson is trying his best, but fans are not buying his shows.  Without another fight on the card that would be of interest, UFC 191 is destined to garner around 150,000 buys if lucky.