Welcome to a special edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 200 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Nunes upsets Tate to win women’s title
If I were to tell you at the start of the year that the main event for July’s UFC 200 would be Amanda Nunes versus Miesha Tate, you probably would have thought that it was a joke. However, due to Ronda Rousey’s movie career, Conor McGregor’s poorly played power move and a Jon Jones drug test, we received Nunes-Tate as the final fight on what was/is supposed to be the biggest card of the year for the UFC.
Amanda Nunes looked sharped and started off quick as she always does. She peppered Tate and may have broken her nose. Once it got to the ground, Nunes applied the rear-naked choke (or chin crank) for the victory. You could see Tate being broken as the round went on. She barely made weight for this fight despite seemingly calm throughout the rest of the camp.
Nunes was emotional and became the first openly gay UFC champion for the sport. It was fitting as it was the same weekend that the UFC announced its line of apparel in support of the LGBTQ community. Of course, the weekend was somewhat tarnished by comments made by Donald Cerrone on Sunday although The Cowboy did apologize immediately.
Nunes may have Holly Holm or a returning Ronda Rousey at year’s end. If Rousey decides to return to the Octagon, I could envision a New York defense for Nunes against Rousey.
Lesnar dominates Hunt in return to Octagon
Brock Lesnar surprised most of the MMA fanbase as he defeated Mark Hunt in a 3-round heavyweight bout. Although Lesnar’s last time in the Octagon looked very bad (a loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141), he looked quick and his wrestling helped squash Hunt. In another surprise, Lesnar’s post-fight interview was far-less dynamic and much more humanitarian than beast-like in his UFC 100 tirade which even UFC Fight Pass censors due to his comments about sponsor Bud Light.
This was supposed to be a one-time thing for Lesnar as he was on “loan” (for $2.5M +) from the WWE. We will see if he will fight again. If he does, you have to think he’s close to being in line for a title shot.
Aldo wins interim belt as McGregor watches on
Jose Aldo looked like his old self in securing a unanimous decision win over Frankie Edgar. Aldo’s ability to stuff takedowns and score on the outside helped him defeat a game Edgar. Aldo should receive his much-anticipated rematch against Conor McGregor (after his one-off with Nate next month).
Not sure what Edgar will do next. He had been on a great run up until Saturday. However, he’ll have to hope for a Conor win to get another shot at the 145 title.
Attendance and Gate
The UFC set a gate record in Nevada with $10.7 million for the 18,202 in attendance at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Bonuses
The bonuses of $50,000 went to Amanda Nunes, Cain Vevlasquez, Joe Lauzon and Gegard Mousasi. All were performance bonuses as there was no Fight of the Night.
Payouts
The biggest payout was Brock Lesnar and his $2.5 million. Even with no win bonus, it’s the largest reported payout for a UFC fighter. No complaints from anyone else as Lesnar likely brought in many PPV purchasers. Lesnar likely will make more from his PPV cut.
Lesnar’s opponent, Mark Hunt, received $700,000 for stepping in with the WWE superstar. According to Kevin Iole, the Nevada State Athletic Commission stated that Cormier was slated to make $1 million for his fight with Jon Jones. But since that was cancelled, he made $500,000.
Promotion of the Fight
The UFC bought ad time on Adult Swim in an effort to expand its reach as well as touch upon the network’s African American demo. At the time, the main event was Cormier-Jones.
In addition, the UFC had a “confrontation show” on FS1 with Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier talking about their fight.
Bud Light and Monster Energy held promotions months in advance holding trips to win a chance to go to UFC 200.
The UFC did their usual media stops although it did not seem as broad a reach as UFC 196.
Sponsors
The special gold mat included the usual sponsors as well as a couple new ones. EA UFC2, Harley-Davidson, MetroPCS, Toyo Tires, Bud Light and Monster were all in the Octagon with the energy drink having the center of the Octagon. Hudson Shipping Lines, a mainstay sponsor on many International UFC cards had signage in the Octagon. DirecTV promoted its original show, Kingdom. It showed clips of the show as well as showing stars in attendance. Also, Speedway was also in the Octagon sharing a signage post with Monster. The company is a gas and convenient store with most of its locations on the East Coast. It ran a promotion in conjunction with Monster leading up to this event.
Bud Light had the prep point at the televised weigh-ins and at the event.
As we mention, Bud Light and Monster Energy had promotions far in advance of 200.
Odds and ends
Yes, we’ll address the sale in another post.
The mat probably was to be more a gold look but was yellow to commemorate UFC 200.
The UFC offered 200 in 4K. It was the first time ever and event was offered in PPV.
This was the first reveal of the Reebok kits. It had more colors. Notably the yellow looked good for Anderson Silva as it was his usually color. But, the yellow also was the same as the mat.
Interesting that DC was wearing his Nike Air Max shoes during fight week including during the Embedded where Dana White told Cormier that his fight with Jones was off.
The WWE did not actively promote UFC 200 although the PPV featured an ad for Summerslam. It was not until Brock’s win did the WWE social media machine engage.
BREAKING NEWS: @BrockLesnar wins at #UFC200, https://t.co/8PEYFNfKt2 pic.twitter.com/k012tYjpc5
— WWE (@WWE) July 10, 2016
While there is so much love for Lesnar right now, an injury-free Cain Velasquez at sea-level is probably the best heavyweight out there.
It’s been slightly over 1 year with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy and the company’s biggest event is greatly affected by it. At least we know that there are no favorites in the process.
The UFC and Snapchat announced a multi-year partnership for coverage of its live events which began at UFC 200.
The UFC Prelims on FS1 were sent to FS2 for the first half hour due to the MLB game that preceeded the event going to extra innings. The FS1 audience missed out on the Sage Northcutt fight. Despite an average (maybe below) average performance, Sage secured an individual Reebok sponsorship.
The Exclusive UFC Fight Pass Prelims had some of the more exciting fights of the night on it as it produced two bonus winners (Lauzon, Mousasi).
Speaking of Fight Pass, I was interviewed by The Verge about how the UFC became the ‘Netflix of Combat.”
Conclusion
We’ll have more on the event, the Expo, Jon Jones and more in part 2. But, everyone probably wants to know what an estimated buy rate would be for this event. While we pondered whether this event could draw 2 million PPV buys, that would be unlikely after the Jon Jones debacle. Jones is not a big PPV draw but the promotion and marketing was centered around the feud with Cormier. UFC 182 drew 800,000 PPV buys. With Lesnar and two other title fights, one would think that it could draw near the 2 million mark. Even without the feud, UFC 200 should do well with just the name Brock Lesnar attached. UFC 200 should doing something between 1 million to 1.2 million PPV buys. While it won’t eclipse UFC 100’s buy rate, it will be a good sendoff for Zuffa.
cormier should not have had his purse cut that is not his fault what jones did
We’ll send him the money turd! He was paid an amount for a specific job. Jones was part of that job for that price. He agreed to the contract that give him less. Let men handle their own finances. They kno more about their situation than fans do. It’s disrespectful to second guess their financial decision as if they are idiots not knowing what they are doing.
Good point turd, just shows you how bad fighters are treated. Hopefully the new owners can make some changes and bring some transparency.
considering jones left 10 million on table, he must be super pissed, hence the tears i guess. to bad to sad. Too many times he has screwed over the UFC with his personal issues. unprofessional.