Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. In this edition, we take a look at UFC 192 taking place from Houston’s Toyota Center where Daniel Cormier took on Alexander Gustafsson in DC’s first title defense of his Light Heavyweight title.
DC wins split decision against Gus
Clearly, it was the most entertaining fight of the night. Alexander Gustafsson lost his second shot at the 205 title. If there’s a consolation, and really there is not, it’s that Gustafsson puts on great fights. His fight with Jon Jones was a classic and this was almost as good. Unfortunately for Gus, he did not win enough of the skirmishes against DC. His running away style probably did not help either.
Cormier may have hurt his foot during the first round which makes his performance that much more remarkable. Notably, he’s only suspended until November 18th. It appear that he is set for a rematch with Jon Jones. On the other hand, Gus is out until April 1 and we won’t see the Swede until sometime into 2016.
Bader defeats Evans
Ryan Bader is moving his way up the light heavyweight rankings. Believe it or not, he might be next in line for a title shot and/or the next opponent for Jon Jones if something happens to DC. Bader outlasted former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans. Evans tired as the fight progressed and was not the same fighter that he was before his 2 year layoff.
Of the four events held at the Toyota Center, UFC 192 was the lowest output of the four drawing 14,622 for a gate of $1,859,000.
Via MMA Junkie:
- UFC 166: 17,238 ($2,500,000 live gate) –main event Cain-JDS
- UFC 136: 16,164 ($2,230,000 live gate) –main event Edgar-Maynard III
- UFC 69: 15,269 ($2,817,200 live gate) – main event GSP-Serra
- UFC 192: 14,622 ($1,859,000 live gate) – main event DC-Gus
Bonuses
The $50,000 bonuses went to DC-Gus for Fight of the Night, Albert Tuemnov and Adriano Martins for their performances on the prelims. Sage Northcutt and Rose Namajunas likely drew undisclosed bonuses as well.
Promotion of the Fight
The UFC Embeddeds spurred the promotion of the fight as usual and this time we saw Halo 5 as the presenting sponsor for the videos.
Tyrone Woodley had the opportunity to throw out the first pitch at a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. We saw this during the Embedded episode. We also saw the fighter make their various media rounds.
It would have been interesting to see what transpired when it was determined that Johny Hendricks could not fight and the reaction by Tyrone Woodley once he knew. Woodley was told by the media so there should have been footage. Despite losing his fight, Woodley still weighed in to show UFC execs he’s a professional. For his efforts, White offered him the next title shot…and then wavered later that night.
Sponsors
The aforementioned Microsoft was in the Octagon and the UFC prep point as it promoted the release of Halo 5, the latest edition to the video game series for the Xbox video game platform. In addition, Draft Kings, Corn Nuts, Harley Davidson, Toyo Tires Metro PCS, Corn Nuts, Bud Light, UFC Fight Pass and Monster Energy Drink had the center. The addition of Fight Pass seems to be a push by the UFC as it relates to the new content it added recently.
Despite the loss of the in-ring octagon opportunities, Bad Boy is still sponsoring Alexander Gustaffson. A new signature collection of shirts were released by the company prior to UFC 192. Gus also helped with the promotion of Halo via twitter.
@dc_mma #HALO5 is coming out 10/27. That should give you something to do while you’re healing from the beating I’m going to give you #UFC192
— Alexander Gustafsson (@AlexTheMauler) September 29, 2015
Odds and ends
The biggest star of UFC 192? Sage Northcutt. Looking at the google searches, he was pretty popular. He even had a brief cameo on UFC Embedded which probably was due to the elimination of Hendricks-Woodley. He was second to Jon Jones in terms of fighter google searches at the start of the event (see below).
One of the bigger disappointments of UFC 192 was the scratch of Johny Hendricks from the event. His fight with Tyrone Woodley was taken off the card.
No original “Face the Pain” opening to start the PPV? Is nothing sacred? In all seriousness, the best part of the opening montage was seeing the Rashad Evans KO of Chuck Liddell from UFC 88 in the opening montage. It was a great, an unexpected KO and also gave some visibility to his homage to Bill Gates post-fight. Gates was once arrested (for an undisclosed reason) in New Mexico and the shirt is the mug shot. Perhaps the greatest shirt we will never see again thanks to the Reebok-era.
Perhaps the best promo videos for a UFC PPV was played after the DC-Gus fight for November’s UFC 193 with Ronda Rousey taking on Holly Holm. What set the PPV promo apart was that it told a story and clearly was focused on the power of women in that they can do anything.
The Houston Rockets Dwight Howard made an appearance at the event. UFC fighters visited a Rockets practice as seen on Embedded. James Harden and Patrick Beverley of the Rockets as well as Howard spoke with DC, Evans and Woodley.
Per The Wrestling Observer podcast, Ali Bagautinov was not tested prior to UFC 192 despite the fact he previously tested for EPO at UFC 174.
The UFC 192 Countdown Show on FS1 drew 96,000 viewers via Sports TV Ratings. It aired opposite Monday Night Football. Usually, the ratings are low due to the fact that the Countdowns are typically online so there’s less of a need to find on TV for fight fans.
Joe B is marrying Megan Olivo? Congrats.
Updated: Prefight show on FS1 569K; Postfight on FS1 254K
Conclusion
Two boxing events on HBO and Showtime, college football and even Brock Lesnar on the WWE Network competed with the UFC Saturday night. For a while on Saturday morning, the Japanese Rugby Team drew more searches than the UFC. Later in the day Saturday, the searches picked up. But, there was nothing that stood out to give the casual fan a reason to purchase this PPV. The loss of Hendricks-Woodley probably detracted some serious MMA fans from purchasing the event but in the end, this event was likely not going to surpass 350,000 buys. The 350,000 buy mark might be optimistic as a 275-300K range is probably more realistic.
Leave a Reply