Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 211 from Dallas, Texas where two titles were successfully defended.
Stipe stops JDS
Stipe Miocic withstood a couple stiff leg kicks to stop Junior Dos Santos in the first round of their Heavyweight title fight. Miocic dropped JDS after clipping him with a punch. He followed up with punches over a crumpled former champion. For JDS, the long layoff did not help and one has to wonder if he still has anything left in fighting. He looked timid at times in avoiding Miocic despite scoring early with leg kicks. But, putting his back to the fence was his downfall.
One has to wonder if there is a healthy Heavyweight on the roster that could challenge him at this point. You can argue that Stipe could wait and face Cain Velasquez or take on Derrick Lewis if he gets past Mark Hunt in June.
Joanna Champion remains on top
She had a huge welt on her forehead but Joanna Jedrzejczyk survived a first round onslaught by Jessica Andrade. From then on, Joanna outclassed Andrade and secured her spot as the Queen of the Division. Andrade was game but as Daniel Cormier pointed out she gave away her attacks with a “tell” in that she ducked her head each time she was coming in which gave Joanna a split section to move out of the way.
Joanna was emotional at the end of the fight as she takes being a champion as seriously as anyone with a belt around their waste.
Next for Joanna is a showdown with Rose Namajunas. She was in Dallas doing UFC press and its clear that this was done to promote this fight.
It was the second-most attended event in Dallas. Only UFC 171, which featured hometown favorite Johny Hendricks against Robbie Lawler, outdrew this card. Below are the top 3 UFC cards in Dallas.
UFC 171: attendance 19,324, gate $2,600,000
UFC 211: attendance 17,834, gate $2,662,645
UFC 103: attendance 17,428, gate $2,400,000
Bonuses
The bonuses went to Stipe Miocic, Jason Knight and Chase Sherman and Rashad Coulter. Stipe and Knight earned Performance Bonuses while Sherman and Coulter earned Fight of the Night for their back and forth fight which Sherman eventually won via stoppage. All earned $50,000 bonuses.
Promotion of Fight
The UFC once again direct messaged people that follow it on Twitter to encourage them to order UFC 211.
Stipe Miocic threw out the first pitch at a Texas Rangers baseball game. He also appeared with Junior Dos Santos before a Mavericks game earlier this year.
The UFC Countdown show took a look at Miocic and how he’s revered in Cleveland including attending a Cavaliers basketball game.
MetroPCS also had a sponsorship activation which included Stipe Miocic doing an interview with Megan Olivio on behalf of the company.
Sponsorships
The usual UFC sponsors were in the Octagon including Toyo Tires, MetroPCS, Budweiser, Monster/7-11, Harley Davidson, UFC Fight Pass and Monster Energy in the middle. Also, the new Alien movie, Audience Network’s Kingdom and upcoming video game Injustice 2 and the UFC’s own new version of its EA video game were in the Octagon.
With the Audience Network unveiling the third season of its MMA original series, “Kingdom,” we once again had the show work with the UFC. This included showing the actors in the crowd during the PPV and there was also a Pre-Fight Party in Dallas.
In a pre-recorded video, Rose Namajunas introduced the trailer for the new Alien movie during the PPV.
Eddie Alvarez was overheard saying “Goddamn Reebok” prior to the official weigh-ins as it appeared that he had to have non-Reebok sponsors patched over.
“Goddamn Reebok,” Eddie Alvarez says as he walks into the weigh-in room wearing unmarked shorts. Looked like they taped over a logo. 156. pic.twitter.com/bFIvlFBTXu
— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) May 12, 2017
Worth noting, Eddie Alvarez went from making $40,000 in Reebok sponsorship money for his last fight back down to $5,000 for #UFC211.
— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) May 12, 2017
Odds and Ends
Dustin Poirier is auctioning off his gear from his fight with Eddie Alvarez to aid a Second Harvest Food Bank in his local Lafayette. He is making a new tradition which is an admirable way to give back.
Look at this on eBay https://t.co/5G6OMadwLJ
My UFC 211 Fight Kit Auction
100% of proceeds going to Second Harvest Food Bank Lafayette La— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) May 15, 2017
Speaking of Poirier, it was a disappointing end to his fight with Eddie Alvarez as the issue of rules relating to a downed opponent was confusing once again.
Due to NASCAR on FS1, the UFC Prelims were pushed to FX which is in more homes so there’s a chance we could see a better number than usual.
500,000 google searches on Saturday for UFC 211 which made it the top searched subject in the US Saturday.
Jason Knight is your next big thing. “Mississippi Mean” will be one to watch in the Featherweight division.
The UFC Summer Kickoff on Friday will likely have several fighters fined as a result of getting physical at the news conference including Amanda Nunes, Michael Chiesa and Kevin Lee. Do the kickoff events do anything for anyone except make everyone cringe?
Michael Johnson said he ate shit. This makes no sense. But considering Lyoto Machida drank his own pee, it’s no wonder this is a niche sport.
Conclusion
Look for this PPV to do slightly better than this year’s PPV buys but not near the 450,000 buys the Stipe Miocic-headlined UFC 203 did when CM Punk was on the show. Despite how good the card was including two title defenses, there is a lack of interest in fthese ights from the casual fan. While the google trends search was encouraging, I would think 350,000-375,000 PPV buys would be how much we see this event do.
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