Dana White announced on the Colin Cowherd show on FS1 that Ronda Rousey will make her return to the Octagon on Friday, December 30th at UFC 207 to take on women’s bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes.
It will be over a year since Rousey fought in the Octagon since she dropped her title to Holly Holm last November. Since the loss, Holm lost in her first title defense to Miesha Tate and Tate dropped the title to Nunes this past July at UFC 200.
Payout Perspective:
This will be an interesting fight at we will see if the Rousey star is still big enough to carry a PPV. The show will be on Friday since New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday this year. The last time this happened was at UFC 141 with Brock Lesnar headlining against Alistair Overeem. Overeem defeated Lesnar and the show did 535,000 buys which is low considering Lesnar was on the card. You might expect that this card may do much more with Rousey’s return. Moreover, I would guess that there would be another title fight on the card to boost the promotion for this end of the year card.
On another note, the announcement on FS1 as opposed to ESPN which might be seen as a sign of future announcements.
I think FS1 are trying to get more eyes on their afternoon shows, with them paying so much for Skip Bayless and Colin Cowherd airing just after.
I think they will alternate and when the TV deal comes up they will split it up like they do with several sports, they (Fox & ESPN) share a lot of sports rights.
The UFC/FOX Sports agenda.
Colin Cowherd rarely (if at all) talked about UFC on his radio show when he was at ESPN.
Now that he’s with FOX Sports, he’s all up on Dana White’s nuts.
All the other FOX Sports 1 talking heads are also kissing Dana White’s ass.
Also very surprising that ESPN’s “SportsNation” didn’t even mention Rousey once today.
Michelle Beadle used to be all heavy on the Ronda Rousey bandwagon…but recently she has expressed doubts on the future of Rousey’s career.
Beadle was also on the Dana White bandwagon, but I think she lost some respect for the UFC when they banned Ariel Helwani at UFC 199 for breaking the Brock Lesnar news regarding UFC 200.
ESPN’s “Highly Questionable” and “Around the Horn” also didn’t mention Rousey once today. Not once.
Ronda returns, likely adding yet another big PPV event for the UFC.
What a year for MMA, dominating combat sports.
Yeah Combo another huge year, they will break the PPV record, already at around 6.5 mill not counting whatever 204 did.
Figure 204 and 206 lets say if they each did 250 on the low side thats 7 mill and then you have two big 205 and 207 shows.
If they each do a million which is all but certain thats 9 mill and the PPV record, they could each do more, its possibly UFC hits 10 mill buys this year.
the strength of blonde hair in the UFC…..and Juliana Pena is the latest fighter to sound off with discontent over this sort of thing.
Tate, Rousey, Shevchenko & Holm are all ranked above Pena, 3 if those have got blonde hair, even Tate does when she dyes it sometimes.
Why aren’t they throwing money at GSP? Why not give Wonderboy a shot before Woodley? Why did they let Rory MacDonald leave if they wanted some ayrian nation?
Please take your racist crap out of here, Ronda was pushed she was a killer people thought was hot and Conor got a push because he’s the best trash talker in combat sports and someone who actually backs it up and is not afraid to go up a weight and fight bigger guys.
I’m not a Rousey fan but Rousey has managed her career very well. She’s made herself a cross-over star in part due to her performances in the cage and in part due to her work outside of it. Cross-over stars are always going to get the title shot or the big fight because they put butts in seats and eyes on PPVs.
Now, arguably it’s easier to be a cross-over star if you’re pretty / blonde / whatever than if you’re not. But that’s not the fault of the fighter. That’s just the way life is.
* pretty / blonde / speak English / whatever
Lol Conor backed it up alright, when he tapped on his back. Dude has 3 losses and will never be as big as mayweather or Canelo is.
you mad Cutch? Look up the term racism, youre using it wrong.
No I have looked at your previous posts and all you mention is stereotypes, only inner city black kids and Latinos watch boxing which is wrong and only white rich people watch the UFC.
If Boxing’s fan base was so poor, why was Boxing almost exclusively on a premium channel like HBO & Showtime just 2 years ago?
Then went in and rematched the same guy and beat him, that’s backing it up, he is now fighting the LW champion, something Canelo is scared to do step up a weight class and fight the champion, numbers don’t lie, McGregor has already beaten Canelos PPV numbers this year quite easily, he beat him last year as well. Since McGregor actually fights 3 times a year he will beat any Mayweather year besides the year he fought Pacquiaou.
Yeah, Canelo’s real dominant. Like all of those gifted decisions he gets and dodging GGG like the plague because he knows he will lose. Also, what’s pathetic is no one ever claimed McGregor was the no.1 p4p fighter in the sport, but they do with Canelo. Another black eye for boxing.
Cutch, it wouldn’t even take 3 fights per year to beat most Mayweather years for McGregor. He’s arguably a bigger draw than Mayweather ever was. Keep in mind, McGregor is putting up a million and a half ppv buys with guys who are the furthest thing from a ppv draw. Diaz never headlined a ppv in his life prior and Aldo never broke 300k buys as an A. Mayweather required big named fighters and draws to hit those marks. The only time he’s ever hit a million and a half was with another ppv star. Mayweather only has 6 ppvs that went over 1m buys where he was the A. McGregor already has 3 and for sure will have 4 after the November MSG show. Win or lose he still has another 2 in him. Without question, he will match Mayweather in terms of 1m+ ppv buys, and will likely eclipse him eventually. This is all without any opponent that is a big ppv draw-like what Mayweather was handed with guys like Mosley, Pac, Cotto.
Also, on a side note- boxing will have literally under 2m ppv buys this year. Then factor in how PBC failed and lost hundreds of millions, HBO/Showtime have slashed their boxing budgets, ratings across the board for boxing are down and nearly every fighter is fleeing N. America for Europe, goes to show boxing is in crisis mode and is clearly at an all time low. You can see why these boxing fans are pulling their hair out.
The UK £ becoming basically worthless as well, when they finally leave the EU, that is huge as US Boxing have been using the UK to pay for certain things, they won’t be able to milk that cow like they have done twice with Canelo & once with GGG this year
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/10/pound-continues-to-fall-against-dollar-and-euro-amid-hard-brexit-fears
Cutch, “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”
Ok…now that we have a definition, which has the goal of racial superiority, this doesnt seem to be in keeping with pointing out the different demographics involved with each sport or the identity politics that exist with the UFC and with Golden Boy via Canelo and that fan base. RElax, you are not fighting the good racial fight on mmapayout.
By the way…it seems like Cyborg herself brought this up with her “blonde hair and blue eyes” remark….either she has been reading my stuff, or she conjectured this on her own….either way, it is absolutely revealing about perception. And I bet you many of the Brazilians are thinking the exact same thing about their treatment in the UFC…..oh…..and let us pay close attention to what Woodley has been going through…..oh….and I bet King Mo has an opinion on it as well from afar….
http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/cris-cyborg-maybe-id-have-my-own-division-if-i-had-blonde-hair-and-blue-eyes-100616
Rousey has brown eyes, next?
Lol…move around bro
Well since 5 women are currently ranked ahead of Pena all of whom are white, besides the champion, then surely she should have guessed that if you don’t beat someone op 5 or have a big name you are going to need to better than struggle to beat Cat Zigano, a girl Ronda beat in seconds. She should fight Shevchenko but everybody tries to be Donor when they aren’t.
Ronda-Cyborg is irrelevant, for now Ronda wants her title back and Cyborg can’t make 135.
Even Floyd Mayweather has talked about the All Haymon fighters all looking for big money fights but not backing it up with numbers, Mayweathers fights made money, so he deserves big money, PBC events lose money, yet they want more money, which is why Danny Garcia is fighting some chump on Spike instead of Keith Thurman which should have already happened.
Wil has yet to comprehend how a business operates.
He also apparently thinks guys like BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Tito Ortiz(well, at least not naturally) and Jon Jones have blonde hair.
Stop race baiting, it is a failed and debunked argument. You sound like Woodley.
“d on October 14th, 2016 8:31 AM
Cutch, it wouldn’t even take 3 fights per year to beat most Mayweather years for McGregor. He’s arguably a bigger draw than Mayweather ever was.”
I’m assuming you have no connections in the business. Everyone in the industry knows that the UFC ppvs are generally off by 250k + or -. No one takes Conors so called payouts and ppv numbers at face value.
Mayweather also had 8 ppvs that went 1m or higher.
He has 3 ppvs that did 2m or higher. McGregor has zero ppvs that did over 2m. McGregor, in all actuality doesn’t have a ppv that did 1.5m. I know you have no inside information because you think they actually sold 1.6m for UFC 202.
Metzler has become a UFC shill the past few years, and its not just him. Rafael, Steve Kim, Kevin Lole, all of them have become “fan based” journalist.
Rafael is getting cut off from certain fighters camps, due to his bias reporting, another thing you probably didn’t know.
McGregor has zero shot of matching the draw power of Floyd.
Its not all his fault, but his sport is just not big enough to carry over like that.
Knowing how this works, you’ve probably already seen his peak numbers, just like you saw Rouseys.
Aldo and Diaz are both bigger names than really anything left on Conor’s radar. Diaz has always been a notable name, and Aldo has been considered one of the mmas best of any era. Nice to see you write them off like they had nothing to do with the success of the ppv. It wasn’t like Diaz chocking out Conor has anything to do with hyping the rematch.
Aldo v McGregor, aka UFC 194 did a lesser gate than Mayweather v Berto.
Yea one of the biggest UFC ppvs of all timed failed to match one of Mayweathers lackluster ppvs.
Mayweather has 3 ppvs that pulled in a over $136m in revenue. Conor has zero that have pulled over $100m in revenue.
Its laughable that you are parading a guy who is very likely going to lose his next fight.
By the way. McGregor is about 14.5-15m ppv buys away from eclipsing Floyd.
Averaging McGregors current ppv tally, it would take Conor about 11 ppvs, of at least 1.36m ppv buys per ppv, to beat Floyd.
11 of them.
It aint happening buddy.
Please provide proof that you are in “the industry” you don’t even need to tell us, just tell the mods and provide proof, otherwise what you say is nonsense.
Kevin Iole releases Boxing numbers as well are they made up?
No one pays attention to Lole. Hes basically a MMA writer as far as most people are concerned.
Rafael is so far up GGGs *** that the Jacobs camp wont talk to him.
Notice how Dan doesnt have any reports coming from Dannys group?
Is that enough of inside info for you?
How bout this. Danny Jacobs manager and basically his entire camp will not talk to Rafael. So now Dan is relying on “scouts” for his info, which isn’t working for him.
GGGs group got the 75% split (this is known) but realistically will probably give a few more percent to Danny to get the deal done.
GGG, or his camp, is the one walking away from negotiations against alot of these fighters.
They walked away from Canelo, without a counter or anything, and if they walk away from Danny, watch them point their fingers at Jacobs crew like hes to blame. And of course Big Boy Dan will eat it up and spit out his one sided view.
Caramel City,
“I’m assuming you have no connections in the business. Everyone in the industry knows that the UFC ppvs are generally off by 250k + or -. No one takes Conors so called payouts and ppv numbers at face value.”
It’s actually quite the opposite as you clearly have no clue about what you are talking about. Those statements could absolutely be claimed about BOXING, not the UFC! There is an independent third party doing the research named Dave Meltzer who has called out White and Co. when they leak false, inflated numbers. The same can NOT be said for boxing, where the numbers are taken directly from the promoters or distributors. If anything the UFC numbers are higher than reported, because they do not include streaming numbers.
“Mayweather also had 8 ppvs that went 1m or higher.”
False. He’s had 7 total, with only 6 as the A. One was against De La Hoya and Mayweather was not a ppv star back then and he would not have hit that figure as the A.
“He has 3 ppvs that did 2m or higher.”
All against ppv stars only 2 as the A. McGregor is doing a million and a half with a guy who never even headlined a ppv before in his life. That fight also did over 1.6m buys with streaming numbers. This MSG show will hit over 2m buys with Eddie Alvarez, what does that tell you?
You are the furthest thing from an insider, you are just a desperate boxing fanboy.
“McGregor has zero shot of matching the draw power of Floyd.”
He already basically has. Mayweather could never do a ppv that went over a million buys with someone like Nate Diaz, or Jose Aldo.
” Its not all his fault, but his sport is just not big enough to carry over like that.”
Right, that’s why the UFC has outdrawn boxing in ppv buys in 9 out of the last 10 years and has on a few occasions doubled them in ppv buys like they will this year.
“Aldo and Diaz are both bigger names than really anything left on Conor’s radar. Diaz has always been a notable name, and Aldo has been considered one of the mmas best of any era. Nice to see you write them off like they had nothing to do with the success of the ppv. It wasn’t like Diaz chocking out Conor has anything to do with hyping the rematch.”
You are proving you know nothing about this topic.
Aldo has NEVER done over 300k buys in his life. Diaz NEVER headlined a ppv in his life.
Those guys are not ppv draws. This is not the same thing as when Mayweather fights someone like Shane Mosley or Canelo or Pacquaio. It is more like when he fights someone like Guerrero or Maidana and can’t break 900k buys.
“Aldo v McGregor, aka UFC 194 did a lesser gate than Mayweather v Berto.”
Gee, that’s funny, because for someone who claims to be an insider, you sure don’t understand how this works. That fight was at the MGM, a casino that buys up the tickets and comps them to high rollers. That’s the only reason for the gate being huge because the anticipation of gamblers coming in that weekend. It was based on anticipation of his history of drawing and it flopped miserably. IE, those were not boxing enthusiasts buying up the tickets.
Yeah, and Mayweather-Berto also did around 300k ppv buys, while McGregor-Aldo did around 1.2m buys.
McGregor is clearly going to be the bigger draw when all is said and done. He will do more 1m buy ppvs than Mayweather and most, if not all of his fights involve fighters who are poor draws unlike Mayweather who relied on ppv stars for his big fights.
Also, one more quick point to make- UFC 194 did a slightly higher gate than Mayweather-Berto and all of their comps. You gave false information.
Your Boxing inside knowledge is straight stolen from Boxing websites, you need to do better than stuff that isn’t all over websites, some actual credentials would help.
Especially if you are going to call someone a shill as if you know any better then please go ahead and prove it.
He doesn’t have a clue. He doesn’t even understand how comps work at casinos.
boxing fans on here are clueless.
i was a huge boxing fan since the 80’s the sport is in such bad shape now it is not even funny
D you are all over the board with your insanity. How has Conor already matched Floyd in draw power?
Conor isn’t even as big as Canelo.
What are you gonna say when PBC comes out with their TV deal that has them across numerous networks?
Canelo just did 300,000 buys what planet are you on if you think he’s a bigger drawer than McGregor?
Even if both were off by 250,000 in your fantasy world then Conor would still be outselling him.
Actually, Caramel City, I’ve been very precise with my points. Your comments on the other hand are completely false, and I explained it thoroughly how big of a ppv star McGregor is. It’s a shame you can’t read.
“Conor isn’t even as big as Canelo”
And I’m insane? Haha.
Canelo couldn’t even break 300k ppv buys. McGregor’s first ppv with Mendes did 825k and he was a last minute fill in who was never a draw.
By the end of McGregor’s career, he will likely hit more 1m plus ppv buys than Mayweather and he will do it with low profile draws unlike Mayweather who couldn’t break 1m ppv buys in 4 out of his last 6 fights.
hey d , were does this guy get canelo is a bigger draw, mcgregor destroyed him in ppv buys this year it is not even close. as a long time boxing fan, since the 80’s
boxing is at its lowest point ever in north america
what boxing fans cant seem to accept is this, mayweather vs pacquiaou was the last hurrah for boxing, they fight was so bad, neither one of them could sell anything after that pac is fighting again, the fight will be a financial disaster like his last fight, pac is broke hbo refused to even carry the fight.
besides canelo name me on boxer in north america that can even draw over 300ppvs sales. right now
“What are you gonna say when PBC comes out with their TV deal that has them across numerous networks?”
Carmel City – I smell a bet. What are you claiming exactly that everything is going great at PBC and they are about to sign lucrative deals across a bunch of TV networks? I bet you that if you add up all of the PBC deals that they sign across multiple networks (in the US), it won’t equal the UFC’s deal with Fox. Would you like to wager?
Oh – and you should be jumping at this bet because the UFC puts its B-cards on Fox and keeps its A-cards for PPV – PBC doesn’t do PPV so it has all of its A-cards on network TV. That’s a big handicap for my side of the bet.
Not only that, they likely won’t even have a deal in place, the writing is on the wall that they are likely to close up shop despite what they are claiming. They’ve lost so much money, have had poor ratings and their is very little interest from tv networks.