Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 222 which took place at the T-Mobile Area in Las Vegas.
Cyborg easily handles Kunitskaya
Cris Cyborg took care of Yana Kunitskaya as the UFC women’s Featherweight champion earned the TKO victory in round 1 of their championship bout. The former Invicta champ earned a takedown in the beginning seconds of the bout and had a couple fleeting moments of offense before being overwhelmed by Cyborg. It was clear that Kunitskaya did not want to do anything with Cyborg’s striking and was an easy victory for the champion.
In a division that does not have many challengers, Cyborg may fight Amanda Nunes in a “superfight” or go after Megan Anderson.
Ortega KO’s Edgar for next title shot Brian Ortega made his presence known in the Featherweight division with an impressive KO of Frankie Edgar. The durable former lightweight champ went down for the first time. He had never been submitted or was stopped before in his UFC career.
Ortega looked great and the high-level blackbelt also showed his striking ability. A matchup against Max Holloway is next.
Attendance, Gate and Bonuses
UFC 222 drew 12,041 for a gate of $1,367, 672 according to the UFC. The event took Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The last event in Vegas was UFC 219 in December which featured Cris “Cyborg” Justino and Holly Holm. The event drew 13,561 for a gate of $1,760,628.74.
The bonuses were awarded to Brian Ortega, Alexander Hernandez, Sean O’Malley and Andre Soukhamthath each earned $50,000 fight-night bonuses at Saturday’s UFC 222 event.
According to SeatGeek, the average resale price on the secondary market was $222.
Cris Cyborg led the list of athletes Saturday night earning $500,000. Brian Ortega earned $100,000 plus another for his win over Frankie Edgar. Ortega also earned another $50,000 for his KO.
The rest of the payouts via NAC:
Cris Cyborg: $500,000 (no win bonus)
def. Yana Kunitskaya: $100,000
Brian Ortega: $200,000 (includes $100,000 win bonus)
def. Frankie Edgar: $195,000
Sean O’Malley: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
def. Andre Soukhamthath: $19,000
Andrei Arlovski: $275,000 (no win bonus)
def. Stefan Struve: $77,000
Ketlen Vieira: $60,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus)
def. Cat Zingano: $35,000
Mackenzie Dern: $50,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus)
def. Ashley Yoder: $12,000
Alexander Hernandez: $26,000 (includes $13,000 win bonus)
def. Beneil Dariush: $48,000
John Dodson: $82,000 (includes $41,000 win bonus)
def. Pedro Munhoz: $34,000
C.B. Dollaway: $92,000 (includes $46,000 win bonus)
def. Hector Lombard: $62,000
Zak Ottow: $36,000 (includes $18,000 win bonus)
def. Mike Pyle: $55,000
Cody Stamann: $40,000 (includes $20,000 win bonus)
def. Bryan Caraway: $21,000
Jordan Johnson: $28,000 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
def. Adam Milstead: $12,000
The Reebok payouts are listed here. Notably, Edgar and Arlovski are in the rare 21 UFC bouts or more category garnering $20K.
Promotion of Event
The biggest promotional event was a joint endeavor with the city of Las Vegas and other sports helding events in the city this past weekend as the Ultimate Vegas Sports Weekend. A “pep rally” was held at the Toshiba Plaza on the Wednesday before the fight.
Ingredients for the Ultimate Sports Weekend:
– UFC
– @GoldenKnights
– @WorldRugby7s
– @NASCAR at @LVMotorSpeedway
– @TMobileArena Toshiba PlazaCelebrate fight week with the Ultimate Vegas Sports Weekend pep rally on 2/28 leading up to #UFC222 March 3! #VegasIsSports @LVCVA pic.twitter.com/OHJYgoCGiu
— UFC (@ufc) February 22, 2018
Sponsorships
Modelo, Toyo Tires, Harley Davidson, MetroPCS, Monster Energy and EA UFC 3 were in the Octagon. Notably, Dollar General was also present in the octagon.
Just a little over a month releasing its latest version of its video game, EA has reduced the price due likely to poor sales. During the PPV, it advertised the sale.
The movie “Hurricane Heist” was given some airtime during the UFC broadcast.
Ratings
The UFC Prelims drew a respectable 905,000 viewers with the peak happening during the last quarter hour for Mackenzie Dern’s fight. The event drew 11,009 viewers streaming. Dern’s fight peaked at 1,076,000 viewers.
The prelim showed had a higher than normal viewership with 431,000 viewers on FS1. The Post-Fight show drew 177,000.
Also on Saturday night, were two boxing telecasts on HBO and Showtime. Deontay Wilder’s fight on Showtime drew an impressive 1,055,000 viewers on the network which beat out HBO’s fights featuring Sergey Kovalev. The boxing events occurred during the PPV and did not compete with the FS1 Prelims.
Odds and ends
The biggest bit of business news coming out last week was that Amazon has signed on to stream UFC PPVs. Similar to ordering via Fight Pass or UFC.com, it cost $64.99 and you have access to the PPV for 24 hours.
There were rumors that Conor McGregor offered to fill-in to save UFC 222. Of course, this sounds like someone trying to stay relevant while taking time off.
Mike Pyle retired after his loss on Saturday. A good career despite going out with a loss.
Mackenzie Dern has a lot to work on but the UFC is hoping she turns into another mainstream star similar to Ronda Rousey.
There were 7 Embedded episodes with 6 of those coming before Friday ended. Most were done to promote potential new stars Dern, Sean O’Malley and Ortega,
Over 200,000 google searches for UFC 222 on Saturday night. Same for Deontay Wilder.
Conclusion
All indications pointing toward this PPV doing between 340,000-380,000 PPV buys based on the prelim ratings, google trend searches and past history with Cyborg on PPV. Not an exact science, but if this does mid-300s, you have to think this is a success considering that the card was built on one fight (Max-Frankie) that fell through.
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