Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 227 taking place in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. The show featured two championship fights with one title change.
Dillashaw retains title in stoppage of Garbrandt
T.J. Dillashaw successfully defended his UFC Bantamweight title over Cody Garbrandt with a first round stoppage of the former champion. Dillashaw is now 2-0 over his former stable mate.
Cejudo wins split decision over Mighty Mouse to end Johnson’s reign
Henry Cejudo’s wrestling was the key in a split decision victory over Demetrious Johnson to win the UFC Flyweight title. Cejudo’s several takedowns and ability to pin down Johnson likely earned him the narrow victory. Johnson indicated that he suffered a broken book and knee injury during the fight. Still, the former champ almost pulled out the victory.
Johnson’s loss is his first since October 2011. He successfully defended the title 11 times prior to this defeat and has to be considered as one of the greatest title runs ever in the UFC.
Attendance and Gate
The event was a sellout at Staples Center with 17,794 in attendance for a gate of $2.85 million.
Bonuses
Dillashaw, Cejudo, Johnson and Renato Moicano earned the $50,000 bonuses. Dillashaw and Moicano drew the Performance Bonuses while Cejudo and Johnson earned the Fight of the Night.
Payouts
Mighty Mouse and Dillashaw earned the most out of the purses disclosed by the California State Athletic Commission. The payouts are here.
Reebok Payouts
Notably, Cub Swanson and Thiago Santos were the only fighters outside of the title fight participants to earn 5 figures.
T.J. Dillashaw: $40,000
Cody Garbrandt: $30,000
Henry Cejudo: $30,000
Demetrious Johnson: $40,000
Renato Moicano: $5,000
Cub Swanson: $20,000
J.J. Aldrich: $4,000
Polyana Viana: $3,500
Thiago “Marreta” Santos: $10,000
Kevin Holland: $3,500
Pedro Munhoz: $5,000
Brett Johns: $4,000
Ricky Simon: $3,500
Montel Jackson: $3,500
Ricardo Ramos: $3,500
Kyung Ho Kang: $5,000
Sheymon Moraes: $3,500
Matt Sayles: $3,500
Alex Perez: $3,500
Jose Torres: $3,500
Weili Zhang: $3,500
Danielle Taylor: $4,000
Marlon Vera: $5,000
Wuliji Buren: $3,500
Sponsorships
Van Heusen made its first appearance in the Octagon as an official sponsor of the UFC. Stephen Thompson and T.J. Dillashaw star in an online commercial for the men’s brand which is launching a flexible casual line. It had the fighter prep point.
Fallout 76, a multiplayer action video game sponsored the Embedded Series this time around.
It was announced that Trifecta Nutrition was the “Official Meal Delivery Partner of the UFC.” The deal is set to be worth $10 million dollars. Notably, Blue Apron, another company within the same space as Trifecta Nutrition is experiencing issues with its company as its second quarter earnings didn’t match up to analyst expectations.
In addition to Van Heusen and Trifecta Nutrition, Harley Davidson, Modelo, MetroPCS, Motel6.com, UFC Fight Pass, Toyo Tires, Monster Energy/Circle K and the movie Mile 22 which stars Ronda Rousey were in the Octagon. Monster Energy had the center.
There seemed to be a concerted effort to promote the Reebok walkout shirts from the fighters.
Ratings
UFC 227 Prelims on FX: 717,000, 0.3 in the A18-49 demo (3rd highest in cable)
UFC 227 Pre Fight Show on FX: 306,000
UFC 226 Post-Fight Show on FS1: 122,000
Odds and Ends
Likely overshadowing this event was the news that Conor McGregor was returning to fight against Khabib Nurmogomedov in October.
While the story died down, there were old social media posts made by Garbrandt where he used racially insensitive language. He was able to explain the posts away and it was seemed to be disregarded once fight night came around. There was the news that was contemplating pulling out of the fight due to issues with his back but decided to go through with it due to financial reasons. You have to feel for Garbrandt who has a little baby and is looking to buy a house, get insurance and all the other things with becoming a regular adult trying to start a family. During a prefight media event, he revealed he went to Vegas to get epidural injections in his back.
There were over 500,000 google searches on Saturday for UFC 227 which is the norm for PPV buys in the 200K range.
Cub Swanson stated that he paid for $26,000 for tickets for the event. The SoCal native lost via submission in the first round.
Garbrandt and Mike Tyson are friends if you watched the Embedded series.
The Prelims were shuffled to FX due to MLB on FS1. It was also a busy night for combat sports as there was boxing on Fox and another on HBO.
Conclusion
Based on the google searches and the prelim ratings, this PPV likely drew around 250,000-275,000 PPV buys. Outside of Conor McGregor, its hard to see a lighter weight division title fight drawing near 300,000 PPV buys nowadays.
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