Michael Bisping, Anderson Silva, Scott Ashkam and Teemu Packalen received the $50,000 fight-night bonuses at UFC Fight Night 84 from London. In addition, the attendance and gate were announced for the event taking place at The O2 Arena in London.
Bisping and Silva won for Fight of the Night while Ashkam and Packalen earned Performance of the Night Bonuses.
In addition, the event drew 16,734 for a gate of $2 million. The event ranks second out of 5 UFC events at The O2 Arena. Michael Bisping was in the main event of the top-ranked event at the O2 as he faced Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 120. The capacity at the venue is 20,000.
The UFC’s James Elliott announced the bonuses, attendance and gate at the event’s post-fight press conference.
Payout Perspective:
This was a big event due to the Anderson Silva-Michael Bisping main event. Despite being on the downside of his career, Silva is a huge draw and with the home country favorite Bisping as his opponent, this was an easy sell. The event was a huge boost for the Fight Pass platform.
Good numbers, both on attendance and gate. I didnt watch it myself, but having lived in the UK a while back, they are some of the best fight fans in the world for both boxing and mma.
Pathetic numbers the supposedly ultimate fighting championship.
Take away the star power and the UFC will end up like WSOF.
Wilder-Povetkin
Wilder is set to make at least $4.5M. If he wins he makes at least $5.22M
Povetkin is set to make at least $1.93M. If he wins he makes at least $2.65M.
Povetkin makes more then every single UFC fighter. Maybe McGregor makes $2M-$3M and thats a hard “maybe”, but he aint making $5.22M as much as D is about to get on here and rant that he does.
Boxers make more than mma fighters, this much is clear. There will come a time when the UFC no longer has a a de facto monopoly on the sport and I do believe it will change after that, as long as there is still a fan demand for the sport. UFC isnt seeing the ratings that it had during the 2000’s when viewership had skyrocketed.
More stupidity from the Gayest! It’s rumored Aldo made 5 million from the Conor fight. So that would mean Conor made atleast the same. Second, if the IfC isn’t getting the viewers it dos in the 2000’s. Why are they selling more PPV’s? How are people knowing about the PPV to tune in or even want to tune in? The UFC has way more viewers than ever. They do way more events and the viewers are more spread out. But the fan base is way bigger than ever before, nationally and globally!
If the UFC was set up to protect fighters and built fake records. They would beat all boxing records. What made FMJ vs Packman so big is mainstream attention. Conor is just now getting some of that. If he wins 2 more fights in a row he will be very close to breaking that boxing PPV record. All you need to mainstream fans. They tune in for whatever the media makes a big deal out of. Anyone popular the UFC uses that same media will see the same results. But much faster than boxing. Conor and Rousey were flirting with 2 million buys without a respectable rival to make the figjts interesting. That blows away anything FMR was doing without Pacman.
“Wilder-Povetkin
Wilder is set to make at least $4.5M. If he wins he makes at least $5.22M
Povetkin is set to make at least $1.93M. If he wins he makes at least $2.65M.
Povetkin makes more then every single UFC fighter. Maybe McGregor makes $2M-$3M and thats a hard “maybe”, but he aint making $5.22M as much as D is about to get on here and rant that he does.”
Wilder-Povetkin is a charity case, which is what boxing has come down to these days. This fight will not gross any where near 7m. Some Russian billionaire just wants to host a fight- he did the same thing with a Klitschko-Povetkin a few years back.
As BS pointed out, your analysis is ridiculous once again, and those comments are the furthest thing from reality. Both of those guys make far less than Rousey and McGregor and Wilder/Povetkin do not make that kind of money unless some charitable promoter overbids for a purse. Boxers who fight on tv like Wilder do not make over 2m per fight. There is no revenue to sustain it. It would require ppv to exceed that figure and we all know boxing’s ppv is in the gutter.
“UFC isnt seeing the ratings that it had during the 2000’s when viewership had skyrocketed.”
Wil, this isn’t accurate at all. Their ratings are better than ever now, if you factor in that they expanded the amount of shows from roughly 20 per year to around 50 now. They just had a cable show on FOX that hit over 2m average viewers with 135lb fighters.
Conor and Rousey were never flirting with 2M ppvs, there last ones didn’t even do 1M.
And Aldo making $5M is laughable.
How u gonna say a guy who has a hard time hitting 200k ppvs is going to make $5M for a fight.
Aldos last 3 ppvs before Conor. 180k, 230k, 180k.
Hes not making $5M. Rousey ain’t making that, and Conors not but hes the closet.
Conor making $5M wont happen either because he will lose one of his next two fights
McGregor-Aldo did 1.1m buys.
“How u gonna say a guy who has a hard time hitting 200k ppvs is going to make $5M for a fight.”
Because this fight did 1.1m ppv buys. They get paid out based on buys. Why is this hard to comprehend?
Rousey and McGregor aren’t making 5m…they are making more than that. Haha.
How many boxers are making 5m after Pac’s last fight? The answer is 1.
D, the UFC during the era of Lesnar, Silva, Hughes, Liddel, was pulling better ratings was it not? For instance, didnt the first UFC on Fox pull close to 9m viewers?
By the way D, I think you are forgetting that markets overseas are just as lucrative if not more than the American market. British and German fans fill soccer stadiums often 40-80K seats with multi million dollar paydays. But again, why are we really comparing the sports? What do you guys on both sides get out of bashing each other’s favorite sports? Are you guys pro fighters in the respective sports?
Wil,
No, if you take into consideration how many shows they were doing and what they were charging for ppvs, I would say they are doing better now. This past year was the best year in company history from a revenue standpoint.
Also, the international market in no way, shape or form is anywhere near as lucrative as the N. American market. I have no idea what you are talking about with the soccer stadiums being filled for multi million dollar paydays. First off, that is extremely rare if you were talking about boxing, also Rousey just did a show that had 50k in attendance abroad and 90% of the revenue from that fight still came from N. America in the form of ppv buys. Also, it doesn’t require a stadium being filled for a fighter to achieve a multi-million dollar payday- they do it in both sports often without one.
I am talking about being able to sell out Wembley Stadium, all 80,000 seats with fighters like Froch headlining, or selling out the O2 with guys like Haye headlining. The recent fight with Frampton and Quigg, the fight in Duseldorf with Klitschko and Fury….not to mention the insane scene in Japan.
Boxing and MMA have nothing to fear from each other, both are doing fine.
And I am still curious about why you guys bash the other sport, what do you all gain from it? What’s the point?
To further clarify, Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko have become multi millionaires by fighting in the UK and Germany respectively. Unless I miss my guess (which is possible) they split in upwards of a 40m purse for their recent fight, while both were already multi millionaires. Car Froch, Arthur Abraham, Alexander Povetkin, Denis Lebedev, Marco Huck, Cecilia Braekhus, Anthony Joshua…etc etc have all become rich while mainly if not all of their fights being in various European promotions be that in the UK for Matchroom, Germany, Denmark, etc etc….not to even mention billion dollar backing in Russia and big money promotions in Japan as well. I think youre approaching this with an “us vs them” mindset and Ive yet to figure out just why youre on that train.
Those sold out fights you speak of abroad pale in comparison to routine UFC ppv headlined fights. I mean, you could take a 300k buy ppv that the UFC does and that would literally bring in more revenue than almost any big show abroad in boxing-including those massive sell out shows, with the exception of maybe Groves-Froch.
There is no way in hell that fight had a 40m purse between those two unless once again it was a charity purse. There is no revenue to sustain those purses. Those fights literally generate less than half of that figure. They rely on sky tv ppv, tv contracts and the gate which does not draw anything even close to that. Also, the guys you’ve mention do not make anything even close to the ppv fighter payouts in the US, which was my point.
My approach was pointing out the reality of the situation. Also, I’m assuming you are new here, but this board is littered with boxing fans that just come on here to (t)(r)(o)(l)(l).
i am by no means a fan of the ufc owners
but the ufc trounces boxing in ppv and every other area. boxing is nowhere as
big as it was in the 80’s and 90’s
I believe the move in boxing is away from the PPV model, which marginalized it during the late 90s and 2000s. Moving to the ppv model was probably the worst thing to happen to boxing in its 130+ years. It appears the various promotions will try to keep it down to 1 or 2 a year…ie Haymon Boxing, Golden Boy, Top Rank, K2, Main Events, etc etc. And I am just speaking about American promotions, I am not up on the ppv numbers in the UK.
Cannot sign on with the “trounces” business since boxing is more sparing with each promotion and its ppvs. Seems to me boxing has learned and is saving its ppv promotions for the purses larger than 20m here stateside.
Yes, Im new here in terms of posting, but have read it for a bit. Best site going for the business of combat sports, and Im a fan of all of them. Im an older guy and have been watching boxing for almost 40 years now, and mma back when it was called “vale tudo”, “pankration”, “shooto” etc etc.
By the way D, you were right, the purse was closer to a 30m split than 40m. Fury was guaranteed at least 5.5m and Wladimir pocketed at least 23m with a percentage of PPV….Im not sure if that means the fight was PPV in the UK and Germany or just the UK. I know that half of German televisions were tuned into the fight though, Wladimir is that big in Germany. For a fight that wasnt PPV in the USA, those are absolutely amazing numbers. I dont think I have ever seen a fight with that sort of purse that wasnt ppv here in the USA. Testament to how popular boxing is in the UK, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, etc etc. I used to live in the UK during my military years and they have nowhere near as many sports as we do, when a big fight comes along, they tune in…especially with the UK being the home of modern boxing.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/wladimir-klitschko-vs-tyson-fury-6292367
And it looks like Tyson Fury is worth about 17.5m in British Pounds Sterling, which tells us that he was a multimillionaire before the Wlad fight, with only having one fight in the USA at Madison Square Garden. The money to be made in the heavyweight division has clearly shifted away from the USA and to Britain and Germany.
“Seems to me boxing has learned and is saving its ppv promotions for the purses larger than 20m here stateside.”
Even if that is the case, the fact remains, the last 2 ppvs that have gone over 1m buys were both UFCs and they have another one almost guaranteed with UFC 200 coming up. Boxing can’t produce those numbers anymore. They only have 1 ppv draw and he is not at Pac or Mayweather status. So even taking the top promoted ppvs these days, the UFC is outdrawing HBO/Showtime ppv.
“By the way D, you were right, the purse was closer to a 30m split than 40m. Fury was guaranteed at least 5.5m and Wladimir pocketed at least 23m with a percentage of PPV…”
That link was a promoter’s estimation of what the gross will be, and it is a ridiculous exaggeration. There is no revenue to back up those numbers. Klitschko’s contract in Germany is tv, not ppv. The only ppv involved for that fight was skytv where buys are around 20-25 in US dollars. Klitschko’s purses from a few years ago were literally as low as 2-3m. His pay had increased in the last few years with his new German tv contract(which of course included sponsorship and promotional agreements he had), but these absurd numbers are ONLY when some Russian billionaire steps in and loses money just because he can. People don’t pay at all to watch these fights in Europe outside of the UK and even there, the ppv is a fraction of what it is here.
The N. American market alone is much bigger than everything abroad. The Klitschko-Fury fight did less revenue than at least 7 ufc ppvs last year and realistically it was probably more like 10.
“The money to be made in the heavyweight division has clearly shifted away from the USA and to Britain and Germany.”
That’s because no one cares about hw boxing in the US. The product stinks. That’s the truth. Boxing’s hw division used to be the premier division. HW’s from the 70s were making more than they are now. You had guys like Tyson in the late 80s and 90s generating insane amounts of revenue, 5x what these guys are now, without factoring for inflation.
UFC 193 and 194 according to mmapayout did 1.1M
I dont really believe those numbers since it took 3 months to be registered which is just too long.
But Ill accept them just for argument sake.
1.1M isn’t flirting with 2M by the way. 1.75M+ is flirting with 2M and the UFC will never touch that.
Canelo-Cotto did 900k with little promotion and both fighters made more than McGregor and Rousey.
Everyone knows McGregor and Rousey dont make $5M. McGregor will if he continues winning.
Rousey probably isnt coming back.
GSP made $5M for about 1 fight maybe 2, but that was after years of being a proven draw. McGregor, while being the UFCs biggest draw, is still pretty green in his attraction. I wouldnt argue that McGregor is making $1M-$3M, but no way is Aldo getting $5M.
Why would he, hes never been a draw. McGregor was/is the draw.
But if McGregor is making $5M, then hes the only one.
Jones will maybe, maybe get $1M-$2M for his next fight. Thats Adrien Broner/Robert Guerrero money.
Povetkin makes more than that.
Anthony Joshua I believe made $4M-$5M for his fight in the UK which sold like 450k ppvs, which they only expected 200k.
There is tons of money overseas for boxing. Froch, Groves, Frampton, Quigg, Klitschko, Fury, all getting huge paydays and bigger than any UFC fighter is getting.
These are just facts.
If there was no money overseas then why is the UFC trying to blanket international?
They know whats up, but its just not working.
I do like how D claims overseas dont matter while a guy from overseas is the biggest guy in his sport.
“UFC 193 and 194 according to mmapayout did 1.1M
I dont really believe those numbers since it took 3 months to be registered which is just too long.”
More like, since they don’t align with your quackie argument.
“1.1M isn’t flirting with 2M by the way. 1.75M+ is flirting with 2M and the UFC will never touch that.”
You are confusing two different people’s statements. No surprises.
“Canelo-Cotto did 900k with little promotion and both fighters made more than McGregor and Rousey.”
This fight was promoted to death and those fighters made more money because they are overpaid and co-promote their own events. Had nothing to do with the incoming revenue.
“McGregor, while being the UFCs biggest draw, is still pretty green in his attraction. I wouldnt argue that McGregor is making $1M-$3M, but no way is Aldo getting $5M.
Why would he, hes never been a draw. McGregor was/is the draw.”
Although that wasn’t my argument, it is very conceivable seeing how the UFC has clearly raised payouts to fighters-including lowering ppv goals and that fight in particular was a huge financial success-bigger than any GSP headlining fight. McGregor 100% made more than 3m, he probably made around 7-8m for that fight.
“But if McGregor is making $5M, then hes the only one.”
Kind of difficult for that to be true, seeing how according to White & Rousey, Ronda is the highest paid fighter.
“Jones will maybe, maybe get $1M-$2M for his next fight. Thats Adrien Broner/Robert Guerrero money.”
You just make things up. Jones makes around 3-4m per fight. He was making more than both of his brothers combined prior to Chandler’s new contract and they were making several million per year. Adrien Broner doesn’t make 2m per fight also, nor does Guerrero. They make 1-1.5m per fight.
“Anthony Joshua I believe made $4M-$5M for his fight in the UK which sold like 450k ppvs, which they only expected 200k.”
More flat our fabrications. Nothing is true to any of this.
“There is tons of money overseas for boxing. Froch, Groves, Frampton, Quigg, Klitschko, Fury, all getting huge paydays and bigger than any UFC fighter is getting.”
Froch is retired. The rest of those guys save Klitschko have consistently made less than 2m per fight and they are huge draws abroad. Klitschko’s only huge paydays have been charity cases.
“These are just facts.”
No, they are just fabrications.
“If there was no money overseas then why is the UFC trying to blanket international?”
I didn’t say there was no money overseas, my point was that the N. American market is much bigger.
“They know whats up, but its just not working.”
Right, that’s why mma right now is bigger in Canada, Brazil, Japan, The Netherlands, Ireland, Australia and a few other countries. They are expanding and growing because fans abroad are starting to realize that it is a more exciting sport and these guys actually come to fight unlike cowards who fight like Mayweather which is the majority of major boxing matches these days.
“I do like how D claims overseas dont matter while a guy from overseas is the biggest guy in his sport.”
Again, you are making misstatements of what I said, but regardless even if that were true, he is still a bigger draw in the US than he is anywhere else by far.
D, my man…my intent isnt to attempt to prove the dominance of one sport over the other. I enjoy both of them, have trained and competed in both of them as a younger man and in the military. I do think by and large the viewership and appeal of each sport divides on demographics….I grew up in the hood but live in the burbs now. I grew up watching and competing in boxing, and most people I know from inner city America watch boxing more than mma, while those younger people from the burbs tend to be more into mma. MMA is too expensive to learn for the ghetto, while boxing is, and rarely do you find mma gyms in the hood nor boxing gyms in the burbs. In the USA anyway, one is a sport of the poor, the other more the middle class.
Now having said that, I admit your grasp of the logitics of boxing, mma, etc…but I cannot agree that millions of dollars are just being given away with no return. There is no business on planet earth that gives money way. That fight between Klitschko and Fury, that filled all 40,000 seats in Duseldorf….the comeback fight at the O2 for Haye filled all 20,000 seats….the up and coming fight between Martin and Joshua sold out all 20,000 seats in minutes…..the fight over the weekend between Frampton and Quigg was also a sellout of 20,000 seats at the Manchester arena. In comparison, I was at the fight between Alvarez and Kirkland on HBO in Houston, the attendance was over 31,000, much more than comes out for even Astros games. I get that you have exuberance for MMA but I think you are selling the Sweet Science short my man. As for the 90s era of heavyweights, absolutely that was a better division that what we have seen from about 2001-2014….you get no argument from me there. The heavyweight division has RARELY been the glory division of boxing, that falls with the welterweights, the lightweights, and the middleweights. There has been a golden area (Ali, Foreman, Holmes, Frazier, Norton, Liston, etc etc) and there has been a “silver era” (Holyfield, Lewis, Bowe, Tyson, Foreman, Holmes, Moorer, Mercer, etc etc) but other than those eras, there really hasnt been a time where you had more than 2-3 guys who had dominant skills….which is why Marciano was who he was, he dominated a weak division….as did Louis…..as did Dempsey……as did Johnson….etc etc. Boxing is fine bro, its not going anywhere. Nor is MMA, both will weather whatever storms come their way. They just have a different fan base…for that most part that is. Im a rarity I suppose.
Jones does not make $4M a fight.
All the guys I named besides Quigg have made over $2M for a fight.
Klitschko, Fury, and Froch have made over $10M for a single fight.
The North American market is not the debate.
UFCs popularity in North America is no where near boxings internationally. Why isn’t any UFC fighter making Klitschko money?
Froch-Groves II made about $38M in revenue. Froch took home $13.5M and Groves $3.37M
They made around $25M off 900k ppvs.
No UFC fighter is making $13M.
McGregor and Rousey don’t make George Grove money
McGregor will probably be the first UFC fighter to make boxer type double digit money as long as he keeps winning and the hype keeps rolling. He almost promotes himself for the most part, very little promoting needed by the UFC…which is why he is so good for the sport. People want to watch him because of his mouth, and then he can back it up too. I see him as the future biggest earner in mma, both in fight purse pay and endorsements. I look for him to pass St. Pierre’s wealth in his career.
The figures of the contract just came out for Alvarez vs. Khan too. Alvarez is guaranteed 10 million plus a percentage of the ppv which will take him protected between 12 and 15 million for his payday, without his Tecate and other endorsements I might add. Khan will get a guaranteed $6m with no options on ppv percentages, this figure does not include his own endorsements as well.
Its hard to argue with that….
by the way, Carl Frampton made over $2m for last weekends fight. That is an amazing sum for a Super Bantamweight championship fight. That is higher than what Deontay Wilder has made to this point (not including his bigger money up and coming fight in Russia against Povetkin.) Matchroom Boxing is a powerhouse promotion in the UK…..which spawned the sport, and also has the highest number of world champions vs any other nation. The British have regained dominance of the sport of Boxing.
Wil good points
“but I cannot agree that millions of dollars are just being given away with no return. There is no business on planet earth that gives money way. ”
Well, I’m sorry to inform you of that, but it is true if you were referring to the Russian billionaire sponsoring the Klitschko-Povetkin fight. These guys can afford to flush money down the drain. The next closest purse bid(which I believe was Klitschko’s own promotion) was a fraction of the winning bid. It really made no sense other than the fact that this guy just can because he wanted to.
The Klitschko-Fury fight sold out in Germany- again, you really need to study the business- European’s do not spend the type of money that N. Americans do on combat sports. That is nothing compared to what it would be here. Also, the gate in terms of revenue even in N. America is nothing compared to what ppv brings in. Also, attendance figures are meaningless without actual figures behind them. Those sellouts you refer to, often barely hit UFC on FOX gate numbers. It really is silly to compare the Int’l market to the US/Canada market because of the drastic difference in revenue the two generate. Also, specifically that Alvarez-Kirkland fight may have done 31k in attendance, but what was the gate? 2m maybe? You need ppv to get those big gate numbers.
“The heavyweight division has RARELY been the glory division of boxing”
The financial numbers from previous eras statistically dispute this statement. Go check out what revenue who was bringing in. HW’s made more money in the past than other weight classes because they sold more, had more interest, etc.
“Khan will get a guaranteed $6m with no options on ppv percentages, this figure does not include his own endorsements as well.
Its hard to argue with that….”
Hard to argue what? Khan isn’t making 6m per fight. He is tagging along the only boxing ppv headliner and making 6m, which is by far his biggest purse. Again, boxing can only dish out purses that big for ppv.
“by the way, Carl Frampton made over $2m for last weekends fight.”
Good for him. What is your point? I never denied tv boxers making around 2m. They don’t exceed those numbers though unless they are on ppv.
“Jones does not make $4M a fight.”
Yes, he does. You just aren’t well informed.
“All the guys I named besides Quigg have made over $2M for a fight.”
More lies.
“Klitschko, Fury, and Froch have made over $10M for a single fight.”
Additional lies, Fury never made that type of money. Also, none of them average anywhere near that.
“The North American market is not the debate.”
It was part of the debate.
“UFCs popularity in North America is no where near boxings internationally. Why isn’t any UFC fighter making Klitschko money?”
There are at least 6 ufc fighters who’s fights generate more revenue than anything Klitschko puts out there. The difference is the promoter takes more of a cut with the UFC than in boxing where Klitschko actually co-promotes. The point being is that the boxer is overpaid, the ufc fighter is underpaid.
“Froch-Groves II made about $38M in revenue. Froch took home $13.5M and Groves $3.37M”
More false statements.
“They made around $25M off 900k ppvs.”
Not true at all. Show a valid source and not a promoter’s claims.
“No UFC fighter is making $13M.”
Nor is any boxer other than Canelo and he is overpaid. His fights draw less revenue than McGregor and Rousey.
“McGregor and Rousey don’t make George Grove money”
You’re right, they make much more.