Ovince St. Pierre will replace the injured Daniel Cormier and will face Jon Jones at UFC 197 for the “interim” Light Heavyweight title. Dana White made the announcement on ESPN on Saturday afternoon.
The news that Cormier was injured surfaced on Friday night and the UFC was quick to replace the current Light Heavyweight champion instead of taking Jones off of the April 23rd card.
OSP is the #6 ranked Light Heavyweight in the UFC.
Payout Perspective:
This is an interesting matchup and one that saves a PPV from Demetrious Johnson having to headline another PPV. Nothing against Johnson, but the numbers reflect that Johnson is not a PPV draw. Maybe the bigger question with the fight announcement here is why is this for the interim light heavyweight championship? Is this to appease Jones? Cormier’s injury should not have him away for too long and OSP challenging for the title does not seem right.
tops E says
Why not mark hunt?
tops E says
Hahahaha…how bout giving frankie edgar a ufc gym….to appease him….hahaha
The Greatest says
OSP is gonna beat him and the UFC is going to go into crisis mode
d says
You don’t go into crisis mode when you are dominating the market share.
Boxing on the other hand is in full blown crisis mode. The major promotions haven’t sold 1 ppv buy thus far this year and we are in April. What do they have on the horizon? Khan-Canelo as the blockbuster fight of the year? Pathetic.
Fight Fan says
D boxing doesn’t need the ppv revenue like ufc does to stay alive son.
d says
Yes, they do. They don’t even draw the ratings the UFC does on tv and don’t have the revenue there.
Look at the state of boxing right now. If you take Canelo out of the picture, they have literally nothing. No ppv, no tv ratings, nothing. The two sports are heading in opposite directions.
Fight Fan says
D if that was the case Goldenboy and top rank would be gone. Boxing doesn’t survive off the once a month ppv like ufc. I hear panda express is gonna be the new sponsor for them after they sell.
Joe says
I hate that the UFC creates interim titles as soon as a champ misses 1 title defense
d says
GB still has Canelo and Top Rank is in horrible shape. I wouldn’t be stunned if one of them went under within the next 10 years.
UFC doesn’t survive off of the once a month ppv, they actually make more money with FOX than Top Rank does with HBO. They have both and are completely dominating the market share.
If they do sell, the rumored figure floating around is 6b. GB and Top Rank combined are worth less than 200m. The UFC is literally worth roughly 30x more than both. Hahahaha. That’s embarrassing.
The Greatest says
“d on April 3rd, 2016 9:03 AM
You don’t go into crisis mode when you are dominating the market share.
Boxing on the other hand is in full blown crisis mode. The major promotions haven’t sold 1 ppv buy thus far this year and we are in April. What do they have on the horizon? Khan-Canelo as the blockbuster fight of the year? Pathetic.”
Boxing hasnt put out any ppvs besides this one that happened this weekend between Adamek-Molina. Pacquiao-Bradley III is this weekend and will do mediocre numbers.
The UFC is worth 30x more than GB and Top Rank.. yet Top Rank and GB fighters make 30x more than UFC fighters. So D is wrong once again.
And the two big ppvs this year for boxing will be Canelo-GGG and Ward-Kovalev.
Terrance Crawford is suppose to be on ppv as well yet I think hes not ready for that.
D is lying again trying to claim boxing has nothing yet Anthony Joshua is set to make more money than any UFC has ever made for one fight.
A lot of money in this so called “dying” sport of boxing
The Greatest says
Everyone should take a shot every time D says “market share”.
Only a complete j.ack.ass would keep saying “market share” like we’re taking stocks.
UFC would be competing with Bellator in this so called “market share” not boxing you m.oron.
tops E says
Hahaha…now d i saying he wont be surprised if they went under in 10 years…i thought you claimed 2016 is the end of boxing hahahaha
d says
“Boxing hasnt put out any ppvs besides this one that happened this weekend between Adamek-Molina. Pacquiao-Bradley III is this weekend and will do mediocre numbers.”
Exactly my point. They don’t have any ppv fighters other than Canelo and he isn’t what Mayweather or Pac were.
“The UFC is worth 30x more than GB and Top Rank.. yet Top Rank and GB fighters make 30x more than UFC fighters. So D is wrong once again.”
You draw delusional conclusions. That wouldn’t prove me wrong, all that would prove is they are poorly run businesses who overpay their fighters.
“And the two big ppvs this year for boxing will be Canelo-GGG and Ward-Kovalev.
Terrance Crawford is suppose to be on ppv as well yet I think hes not ready for that.”
Good luck waiting to see if Ward fights Kovalev and I can’t imagine a scenario where Canelo grows a pair to fight GGG. Those still aren’t blockbuster fights either. Plus when GGG destroys Canelo, his stock will drop dramatically and he will be exposed for what he really is, which is a very overrated fighter.
“D is lying again trying to claim boxing has nothing yet Anthony Joshua is set to make more money than any UFC has ever made for one fight.
A lot of money in this so called “dying” sport of boxing”
Lying is all the weakest does because Joshua doesn’t make anywhere near the kind of money he claims and again, Joshua fights generate at best D. Johnson revenue. UK market is a joke compared to N. America.
“Everyone should take a shot every time D says “market share”.
Only a complete j.ack.ass would keep saying “market share” like we’re taking stocks.
UFC would be competing with Bellator in this so called “market share” not boxing you m.oron.”
The weakest proves what kind of imbecile he is because he is unaware that all combat sports have cross over affect. Everyone who analyzes the market is aware of this other than a delusional boxing fan who is doing everything he can to grasp for straws because his argument and his sport are in desperate times.
fight fan says
D you got proof that boxing is in desperate times besides your PBC obsession? Lol you have no clue how big it really is outside of the US globablly. Boxing doesn’t hose the fans by having worthless PPV’s all year. Instead they make them the big fights the way it should be. Maybe when the UFC sells soon they will grasp that concept.
d says
Again with the you got proof questions. First off, I always do when you ask these and you never provide proof for anything you claim.
Anyway, for the evidence other than PBC: their ppv stream is in disaster mode. There is only 1 boxer who can produce a 900k buy ppv(or even a 400k buy ppv for that matter) and their two biggest stars over the past decade are done. Their star power even on premium cable is at a horrible all time low, most big named fighters are forced to fight abroad, etc. Boxing is a mess right now.
Even though it is unlikely the ufc will sell, if it did, as I pointed out, it would be worth more than every boxing promotion and every boxer in the world combined.
fight fan says
D proof is in the pudding boxing holds the top 3 PPV’s in combat sports ever. 2 of which have come within the last 3 years. Talk to me when UFC can break 2 mil PPV’s if they haven’t become the Panda Fighting Championship by then. And that’s just stateside, Overseas they own Europe and Russia. You can keep trying to peddle your bs on here about not having a ppv this year but the fact is they still making money while UFC is scrambling to put together cards.
d says
Haha. Did you pick up that line at your local Buffalo Wild Wings?
The proof is the fact that you revert back to past history, and refuse to address the present situation. The fact remains, when talking about ppv, at least the two biggest ppv draws are in mma, the ufc will more than double the entire sport of boxing this year in both buys & revenue and the top 3 ppvs this year will all be UFC’s. Talk to me when boxing can do a million buy ppv again. The UFC will do at least 6 before boxing does another one, if they do another 1m buy ppv.
They really don’t own Europe. The biggest European star right now is Conor McGregor. If he were to fight in Ireland right now, he would outsell anyone in boxing. Not to mention the UFC’s dominance in Brazil where they are about to do a massive stadium show.
You are delusional if you think that boxing is making money and the UFC is scrambling to put cards together. What’s pathetic is even when the UFC has makeshift cards, they still dominate boxing. Hahaha.
Fight Fan says
You pick one fighter from one country who just got his ass whipped. Brook and khan would sell out wembly. Klitchko and fury packed the espirit and both made more than McLoser did. The money is in boxing and the fans are global. Oh btw what did the friday edition of pbc do? The one with broner vs a bum on a late Friday? Yeah 1m, boxing is deal all right
d says
Yeah, and that guy who just lost would STILL draw more than anything in boxing in the UK. Hahaha. That’s pathetic.
In no way, shape or form did Fury make more than McGregor and Klitschko probably didn’t either. Not to mention McGregor’s fight generated at least 3x the revenue that fight did. The money is not in boxing, or else they would be bringing in more money and they aren’t. Why do you think they are not fighting on ppv in N. America? Because the biggest market in the world doesn’t give a damn about them. Those fights don’t even do great tv ratings. MMA is bigger in different markets globally like Brazil, Canada, Australia, Japan, etc.
That fight did terrible ratings. Bellator does more than double that with has been ufc fighters. Haha. They have no named headliners that do more than Broner did which only peaked at 1m, only averaged 837k. Those are poor numbers for spike tv.
The Greatest says
Oh tell me more D.
D believes that Mayweather-Pacquiao only did 2M ppvs.
The man is a frantic mess
And Broner-Theophane averaged over 1m and the full,numbers aren’t out yet.
Peak will be higher.
d says
Hahaha.
A frantic mess is more like the freak who continues to troll on mma websites lying about everything to defend the honor of his beloved fading sport.
Also, that Broner figure was pathetic. Bellator does more than that all the time.
d says
Hahaha.
A frantic mess is more like the freak who continues to hate on mma websites lying about everything to defend the honor of his beloved fading sport.
Also, that Broner figure was pathetic. Bellator does more than that all the time.
The Greatest says
Bellator does high numbers with freak shows. Kimbo-Dada.
d says
They do more than double PBC with freak shows. Their no named headliners still beat PBC though. Think about how pathetic that is.