Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 199 taking place at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The show featured two title defenses.
Bisping shocks the world
Michael Bisping waited a long time for his shot at the middleweight title and he did not disappoint. Perhaps exposing a suspect chin, Bisping KO’d the champion Luke Rockhold in the first round. Rockhold appeared to be overconfident in the lead up to this fight and admitted as much post-fight. Bisping is a polarizing figure but you have to respect his journey to the title. We could see a rematch of the two or maybe Jacare Souza, who congratulated The Count on the way out of the Octagon would be a good choice.
Dominator overwhelms Faber
It was a very entertaining promotion for the fight, but in the end, Dominick Cruz showed that he was much better than Urijah Faber. The oft-injured bantamweight champion secured a unanimous decision. Joe Rogan seemed to focus on whether or not Faber would retire after this fight.
Would people be willing to pay $60 for a “superfight” with Demetrious Johnson?
Bonuses
Bonuses went out to Bisping and Dan Henderson (coincidentally opponents at UFC 100) for their performances. Polo Reyes and Dong Hyun Kim earned Fight of the Night. All received $50,000.
Attendance and Gate
The UFC announced post-fight that The Forum was a sellout with 15,587 for a live gate of $2,168,675.
Sponsorships
The sponsors in the Octagon included Harley Davidson, Toyo Tires, Bud Light, MetroPCS, and the TNT upcoming drama, Animal Kingdom. Food 4 Less, a Compton, California-based “no frills” grocery was a sponsor in the Octagon as it shared a post with Monster. As with most UFC events, Monster Energy had the center of the Octagon.
Dominick Cruz sported a Monster patch on his Reebok black kit. He also did an old school thank you to them post-match including holding a Monster can.
UFC Embedded appears to be the place to have your non-official UFC sponsors to be visible. Luke Rockhold wore Adidas and Monster Milk during the vlogs.
Odds and Ends
Three big pieces of news not related to 199. First, Brock Lesnar is back. Despite how he left the company, he returns and the move should draw eyebrows as the WWE is allowing Lesnar to fight a month before the company’s second-biggest show of the year – Summerslam.
Second, Fedor Emelienenko will be on Fight Pass on an EFN card on June 17th. Thus, the UFC will finally get Brock Lesnar-Fedor…just not together.
Finally, the rematch no one except Conor McGregor wants as Nate Diaz will face McGregor at UFC 202 in Vegas August 20th. Interesting that the UFC is traveling less domestically.
There were 4 fights on UFC Fight Pass Prelims. 3 of the 4 fights were very good.
UFC Fight Pass introduced a promotion where fans can send in 1 minute videos to tell Dana White why they are the biggest UFC fan. The winner will get to come to International Fight Week, meet Dana White and attend UFC Fight Night: Alvarez-RDA.
UFC allowed flags in lieu of sponsor banners in the Octagon.
Octagon ladies sport the Monster patch on their uniforms, do they get paid for doing so?
Watching Embedded, apparently the champions (Cruz and Rockhold) were given rental properties to stay in during fight week while the others stayed in a hotel.
The weigh-ins were different since newly instituted weigh-in rules with the California State Athletic Commission allowed fighters to weigh-in between a 10am-2pm window the day before the fight. Thus, the televised weigh-ins we usually see did not include the official weigh-ins.
Did the finish of Hendo/Lombard look similar to Hendo/Bisping at UFC 100 with Hendo unloading on an already unconscious opponent?
Ariel Helwani and three others were escorted from the building during UFC 199. Helwani tweeted that he had been banned by the UFC for life. It was Helwani that broke the Brock Lesnar news on MMA Fighting.
The show concluded with a tribute to Muhammad Ali who passed away on Friday.
Conclusion
This was a very good show but it will likely be overshadowed by the news that Brock Lesnar is returning next month. Google trends had 500,000 searches for UFC 199 on Saturday. Notably, Brock Lesnar drew 100,000 searches on Saturday. How many PPV buys will this card receive? Without a proven PPV draw at the top of the card, yet a solid lineup for the PPV, the buy rate should be 350,000 to 400,000 PPV buys.
was an entertaining card top to bottom
hendo vs lombard was all out war. cards like this show that boxing enterainment wise cannot compete with mma now
cruz will beat the dwarf johnson again
was an entertaining card top to bottom
hendo vs lombard was all out war. cards like this show that boxing enterainment wise cannot compete with mma now
cruz will beat the dwarf johnson again
“cards like this show that boxing enterainment wise cannot compete with mma now”
I agree that the UFC card was awesome, but the boxing card on HBO was also awesome. It was a great weekend to be a fight fan.
Boxing doesn’t need fake wrestlers to sell.
A great card, indeed.
UFC puts on better events, more consistently than boxing. There were even a few Fight of the Night candidates on the Prelims alone!
Prelims have been televised for a while now – that’s how popular they are. The product is more balanced.
And coming up: 200, McGregor-Nate 2, MSG, etc.
Not even debatable.