UFC 210: Payout Perspective

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective.  This time around we take a look at UFC 210 in Buffalo, New York

Cormier “makes” weight, retires Johnson

Daniel Cormier lost 1.2 pounds in less than 5 minutes at the weigh-ins and made weight after missing on the first attempt.  Despite no one really addressing this marvel, Cormier making weight ensured a championship match in which he dispatched Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in 2 rounds.

Instead of using his strength of stand-up and striking, Johnson attempted to take down and grapple the far superior wrestler in Cormier.  He was not listening to his corner and when Johnson was faced with some adversity, he tapped out.

Johnson promptly retired after the match stating that he had made a commitment to another job.  At 33, Johnson leaves the sport at the peak of his MMA career.  But, one has to wonder how invested he was in this fight if he knew that he was going to retire no matter what after it.

For Cormier, he went professional wrestler-mode in his post-fight interview in the Octagon as he went after Jimi Manuwa and Jon Jones.  While it appears, he is embracing the booing that is happening, he still has Jon Jones in his head.

With Cormier having to nurse a broken nose and getting married in May, it appears that a showdown with Jones will not happen in July at International Fight Week but maybe August at its earliest.

Mousasi defeats Weidman on Knee

Someone needs to explain the rules to me again.  Gegard Mousasi defeated Chris Weidman after it was determined that a knee was legal despite the former UFC middleweight’s attempt to put both hands down to become a grounded opponent.  If you are a grounded opponent, you cannot be kneed.  The doctor at ringside determined that Weidman could not continue.  Weidman is appealing the decision, but if it stands this makes 3 losses in a row for Weidman as it seems the once next big thing is at a crossroads in his career.

Weidman is still a name and you can envision him headlining the UFC card in Long Island this July but you have to wonder where will he be in the UFC middleweight hierarchy.  He’s not going to be released.  But, will he be a name for a card or an actual contender for the middleweight title.

Mousasi has another impressive name on his win resume and should be moving toward a title shot against Michael Bisping.

Attendance

UFC 210 was announced as a sellout at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.  The event set a sporting event record for the venue with 17,110 for a gate or $2 million.  Certainly, the economic impact to the area is one of the reasons why businesses wanted to legalize MMA in the state.

Bonuses

Bonuses went to Gregor Gillespie, Charles Oliveira, Shane Burgos and Charles Rosa.  Gillepsie and Oliveira drew Performance bonuses while Burgos and Rosa drew the Fight of the Night.  All received $50,000 bonuses.

Certainly, Cormier or Cynthia Calvillo could have earned the Performance bonus too.

Promotion of the Fight

It was the first major PPV in upstate New York since UFC 7 and the city of Buffalo honored the UFC for coming.  Despite being a New England Patriots fan Dana White posed with some Buffalo Bills.  The Bills were all over UFC 210.

Shoutout to the @BuffaloBills & QB @TyrodTaylor for having us out! #UFC210 pic.twitter.com/6nworjSnSs

— UFC (@ufc) April 7, 2017

The local news did a writeup on White.

The UFC sent direct messages (DMs) on twitter to those that follow its twitter feed about UFC 210.  To some, it also asked for people to RTs.

The Embedded series followed Chris Weidman, Gegard Mousasi, Daniel Cormier, Anthony Johnson for most of the series.  It also briefly looked at Cynthia Calvillo and Pearl Gonzalez.  Notably, there was no looks at Cormier’s weight-cut and his issues.  MMA Fighting did memorialize the weight-cut for Weidman.

Also of interest, that Daniel Cormier was wearing a pair of Air Jordans on an episode of Embedded this time around.  As we know, the UFC is sponsored by Reebok.

Sponsorships

The usual sponsors were in the octagon including Harley Davidson, Reebok, Budweiser, 7-11, Toyo Tires, Metro PCS, UFC Fight Pass and Monster Energy had the center of the octagon.  There were no other

Chris Weidman and Daniel Cormier both had Monster Energy patches on their fight kits.

Odds and ends

The Pearl Gonzalez story drew over 100,000 google searches on Friday after she was initially told she could not fight due to her breast implants.  However, after the UFC spoke with the athletic commission and got in contact with her doctor, she was given the go ahead to fight.  Thus, for White to chastise media on FS1 mischaracterizes the black letter rule which was due to her breast implants, Gonzalez could not fight.  His lashing out at the media seems to be a reflection of how sensitive he is about criticism.

Maybe this is too much conspiracy theory but I wonder if the reason NASCAR denied having a partnership with Bellator was due to the fact it was featured on the UFC 210 Countdown this past week.  The episode shows Anthony Johnson attending a NASCAR event.  At the same event, we also see Donald Cerrone.

Patrick Cote’s retirement was touching.  Unfortunately, it did not end in a win like Mark Munoz or Urijah Faber but I thought the taking off the gloves and the UFC allowing him to talk despite being the loser was nice.  Certainly, Cote’s retirement was not too surprising.

On the other end, everyone was stunned with Anthony Johnson’s retirement.  It’s better to leave early than to stick around too long so I think this may be best for Johnson if he no longer has his heart in the game.  Perhaps that explains why Johnson seemed to give up in the second round.

Urijah Faber into the UFC Hall of Fame this year was a no-brainer.

UFC 210 Countdown on FS1 Sunday night drew 99,000 viewers per Sports TV Ratings.

The Prelims on Saturday started on FS2 due to the Yankees-Indians game going long on Fs1.

Try leaning over on something while weighing yourself on a scale and you will have performed the “towel trick.”

There were over 500,000 google searches for UFC 210 on Saturday night.

Conclusion

I would not expect this PPV to draw more than 300,000 buys.  Daniel Cormier-Anthony Johnson is not a fight that would draw a casual viewer despite being for a title.  Although, Mousasi-Weidman is a nice co-main for hardcore fans, it would not draw someone either.  We did have lull of weekends without UFC action so some might be wanting to see some fights.  Thus, the PPV buy rate probably falls into the realm of the hardcore base plus some other scattered fans hungry for MMA action.