MMA Payout

The Business of Combat Sports

UFC 198: Payout Perspective

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Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective.  This time we take a look at UFC 198 taking place from Curitiba, Brazil where Fabricio Werdum took on Stipe Miocic for the Heavyweight title.

Miocic crowned Heavyweight Champ

Despite the massive crowd in favor of Fabricio Werdum, Stipe Miocic knocked him out in the first round.  The KO stunned the massive crowd in Curtiba.  For Miocic, it was an emotional win and he showed it when he returned back home to Cleveland.  He also had a message for the city’s NBA team.

Cyborg does not disappoint in debut

The long-awaited debut of Cris “Cyborg” Justino did not disappoint the Brazilian fans as she overpowered Leslie Smith earning a TKO in the first round, just 1:21 in, despite a vehement protest from Smith.  Smith took to social media after the fight to vent her anger.

The obvious question was whether Cyborg could make weight, which she did.  Now, the next hurdle would be coming down another 5 pounds to challenge Miesha Tate for the bantamweight title.  Of course, maybe there’s a fight out there at the 140 pound catchweight that could happen (i.e., Ronda Rousey).

Attendance

It was a record crowd at Arena da Baixada in Curitiba Parana, Brazil as the announced attendance was over 45,000 (45,207 to be exact).  It made it the 3rd highest attendance in UFC history according to the announcement on the PPV telecast.  The tickets sold out in one day.  No gate was announced which seems to be the norm for Brazil shows.

Bonuses

The bonuses of $50,000 went to Miocic, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Francisco Trinaldo and Yancy Medeiros.  Trinaldo and Medeiros won for Fight of the Night which aired on the UFC Prelims on FS1 and Miocic and Souza earned performance bonuses.

Sponsors

Budweiser was in the center of the Octagon.  Notably Nissan had signage in the octagon.   Bud Light was also present in the Octagon along with Toyo Tires, EA UFC 2, Harley Davidson, MetroPCS, Fight Pass, and ads for UFC 199 and 200.

Budweiser sponsored the Embedded episodes and also had the fighter prep point.  Bud Light was a big sponsor throughout the broadcast.

No Monster Energy Drink on the broadcast.  This may be due in part that TNT Energy Drink had been a UFC sponsor in Brazil.  According to this UFC press release, the Monster exclusive deal with the UFC, excludes Brazil.

Odds and Ends

This was a big show but think how much bigger it could have been with Anderson Silva-Uriah Hall.

Fans were given Werdum “faces” which had the former champ’s trademark smirk.  He did it a couple times during the walk out.  Werdum seemed like he had the time of his life until the fight started.

A subtle post-fight gesture for new champs is that they are given the champion’s “black” Reebok shirt.  Miesha Tate was given it after defeating Holly Holm.  Miocic was handed the shirt after his post-fight interview.

Matt Brown probably should never fight in Brazil again.  He gave the Brazilian fans the Stone Cold Steve Austin treatment at weigh-ins.  Although FS1 did not show it, there was footage of random fans taking shots at Brown on his walkout to the Octagon against Damian Maia.

Brown was submitted by Maia.  The next day, his ex-coach takes a swing at him.  Fortunately, authorities got a hold (literally) on the guy.

I know that there are practical reasons for this, but does anyone find it odd that Benson Henderson was once again wearing a UFC uniform in the corner of training partner, Bryan Barberena.

It looks like Jon Jones is really feeling it.

Big Nog was announced as the first UFC fighter to go into the company’s Hall of Fame this summer.  Little Nog had a KO of Patrick Cummins as the featured fight on the early UFC Prelims on Fight Pass.

There were 500,000 google searches for UFC 198 on Saturday.

Conclusion

UFC 198 was a very entertaining card with some good finishes.  But, did the Werdum-Miocic appeal to the casual viewers?  Probably not.  This was a card which was focused on Brazil.  The attendance looked very good and the crowds (including at the weigh-ins) were great.  However, the PPV buys for this event will likely come in around 325,000 buys.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. HAHAHAHA!!! Sounds like we caught Fight fan in one of his many lies. He claimed the gate was 3m, the later acknowledged no one released the gate numbers.

    By the way, dinero is Spanish, not Portuguese, genius.

    Reply

  4. HAHAHAHA!!! Sounds like we caught Fight fan in one of his many lies. He claimed the gate was 3m, the later acknowledged no one released the gate numbers.

    By the way, dinero is Spanish, not Portuguese, genius.

    Reply

  7. Hey D, your buddy Kevin Iole reported that 3m number lol…. so much for world domination. I think my local WWE event pulls 3 million on a monday night raw show.

    Reply

  8. No it wasn’t, you lied again.

    Here was the number he released: 45k in attendance and 3.97m, practically 4m gate.

    You knocked 970k off of the total.

    You also just made up that number about wwe. They wished they could pull 3m for a non major event.

    Do you guys ever tell the truth?

    Reply

  11. Amazing how the boxing trolls are trying to downplay such a successful event.
    Desperation.

    Now we have UFC 200 coming up and the Madison Square Garden event.

    UFC is on a roll and it must be killing them.

    Hang in there boxing fans.

    Reply

  12. Look at d rolling back to a different ppv,

    D for desperate

    The event had a horrible gate for that many people. Either tickets were dirt cheap or they papered the place like old wcw events

    Reply

  14. UFC 196?
    D you dont want to play this game.
    You say UFC 196, I say Canelo-Cotto, or Mayweather-Pacquiao and the game is over

    Reply

  15. “Look at d rolling back to a different ppv,”

    Different ppv? Compared to what? He cherry picks stats worse than anyone alive.

    “The event had a horrible gate for that many people. Either tickets were dirt cheap or they papered the place like old wcw events”

    This wasn’t at a casino genius. The numbers are always inflated in Vegas for both boxing and mma.

    That wasn’t a bad gate at all. How many boxing gates did that number this year?

    “Cotto Canelo did 12 mil off of 10k fans at Mandalay bay lol keep trying desperate d”

    Hahaha. He’s gotta go back to last year. Let me know when boxing breaks 460k ppv buys again. It’s been a over a year. Hahahaha.

    Reply

  16. “UFC 196?
    D you dont want to play this game.
    You say UFC 196, I say Canelo-Cotto, or Mayweather-Pacquiao and the game is over”

    Retired boxers, comped to death gate numbers, exaggerated ppv numbers, yup that’s boxing these days. Hey, why don’t you tell me why Cotto-khan did only 460k buys with that 7m dollar gate? Doesn’t seem too balanced. Seems like someone comped some serious tickets. Hahaha.

    Boxing is at an all time low. They are throwing pure gutter balls. Hahahahaha.

    Reply

  19. Boxing looking at a ppv high of 460k this year, HBO rights fees getting cut, gates declining, PBC failure, etc. Could it get worse for boxing? Let’s wait and see. Hahaha.

    Reply

  24. didnt watch this card, i dont order ufc to the house anymore. I watched Bellator instead since it was free. King Mo got robbed…absolutely robbed

    Reply

  26. Fight Fan gets all of his news, current events, etc from his BWW. His world revolves around it. BWW actually as a chain still gets the UFC fights though. Fight Fan must be disappointed to hear that. He’s been on a rampage ever since boxing has turned into a mess and mma has been on fire. Haha.

    Reply

  27. UFC 197 buyrate numbers range from 375K to 450K. Not sure if the mods on this site are up to date on the latest and greatest news leaks.

    Reply

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