Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 204 from Manchester, England which pitted Michael Bisping defending his UFC middleweight title against Dan Henderson.
Bisping outlasts Hendo
The rematch was 7 years in the making and despite the time in between fights, everyone knew the backstory from UFC 100. Hendo hit an “H Bomb” that knocked out Bisping and then landed on the Brit with another shot while he was on the ground. This was the story that sold the fight otherwise the matchmaking never made sense aside from Bisping wanting to avenge a loss.
The fight itself was great. Hendo almost recreated his KO of Bisping in round 1 and picked his spots which stung Bisping and bloodied his eyes. However, Bisping’s excellent cardio kept him in the fight and staying on top of the 46-year-old appeared to be the critical factor in the decision.
A matchup with Jacare Souza seems like the most logical matchup for Bisping but we’ll see what happens next.
Mousasi stops Belfort
Vitor Belfort’s days as a top-level fighter are over as Gegard Mousasi had little difficulty with the former champion. Belfort looked much different in terms of body composition than previous fights and for a black belt did not handle being mounted too well.
Mousasi called out Anderson Silva in his post-fight interview in what you can call a “resume builder” for the middleweight.
Attendance and Gate
The event took place at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England and drew 16,000 for a live gate of $1.96 million. The attendance was impressive considering the event took place in the middle of the night to accommodate American PPV.
The attendance and gate come in second to UFC 105 held at the same arena. That event which featured Randy Couture-Brandon Vera drew 16,693 for a $2 million gate.
Bonuses
$50,000 bonuses went to Hendo-Bisping for Fight of the Night and Iuri Alcantara and Jimi Manuwa for Performances of the Night. Mike Perry and Danny Roberts and Stefan Struve could have won bonuses too.
Promotion of the Fight
The UFC did its usual promotional events for the fight. As seen on the Embedded series, Dan Henderson visited the Manchester City Football Club. Bisping is a fan of Manchester United, the rival club.
Sponsorships
Monster Energy Drink, UFC Fight Pass and Bud Light were thenotable mainstay sponsors for the night. In addition, video game Gears of War 4 and “What Now?” the upcoming Kevin Hart comedy also had signage in the Octagon. Also, Twinzz.com, a European hat maker was also in the Octagon. IconicFaceOff.com which features a Conor McGregor commercial on its web site was also on the mat. Also, UFC 205 signage including it’s “Can’t Wait” tag was in the Octagon.
Odds and ends
UFC 204 had 500,000 plus searches on Friday in the US. I couldn’t find the number of US searches for Saturday for UFC 204 which might be an oversight or the fact that there were other searches more popular than the event. However, in the UK UFC 204 registered 200,000 plus searches on Saturday
The post-fight show usually on FS1 was switched to FS2 due to college football.
Brian Stann served as the color commentator in place of Joe Rogan and was fantastic.
The trailer for UFC 205 were shown during the telecast.
Appealing to their apparel sponsor, one of the Embedded showed a picture of a young Michael Bisping wearing a Reebok sweatshirt. Also, an episode showed Hendo picking out a cup for the fight.
The PPV ended early due to the early stoppages in the first 4 main card fights and the telecast filled it with the Brad Pickett-Iuri Alcintara fight.
Conclusion
Since this fight did not occur in the U.S., it seems that there was less buzz for it. Then again, if you did not like the main event, there was not much for the casual viewer. While the Bisping-Hendo fight brought some history and curiosity I don’t think Bisping is a PPV draw unless he’s fighting a name brand opponent. Hendo is great but he is not a PPV draw. UFC 199 featuring Rockhold-Bisping drew 320,000 buys. But, with this happening during college football season, the PPV will likely do 275,000 PPV buys.
Brian Stann is an excellent analyst and communicates technical detail with passion.
He also treats fighters- established and new blood professionally. I do not miss Joe Rogan saying the word CRAZY.
There has to be some revenue generating way for the UFC to allow Irish/UK/European fans to access PPV’s without having to sign up to a TV subscription package. I’m sure there were token fans in the UK who would have liked to see Bisping but not commit to signing up to BT Sport. I get why BT Sport want exclusivity but that’s going to marginalise the passive fan. There should be a way to buy a PPV event as a one off on this side of the Atlantic.
When are the payouts for #ufc 204 for the athletes coming out? Was wondering what bisping hendo were paid