Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 228 which took place at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas.
Woodley submits Till
Tyron Woodley used a D’arce Choke to earn his BJJ Black Belt and retain his UFC welterweight belt. Woodley submitted Darren Till and earned a performance bonus. Despite the belief by many that Till was the contender to dethrone Woodley, the champion had little difficulty with him.
Next up for Woodley looks to be Colby Covington.
Mottano stripped of title
The second title of the evening was scrapped due to Nicco Montano being sent to the hospital presumably as a result of trying to cut weight. As a result, her fight with Valentina Shevchenko was taken off the card and Dana White stripped the TUF winner of her flyweight title. Shevchenko will have the opportunity to fight for the flyweight title at a yet to be determined date.
Stripping Mottano of the title hurts her pay scale since she now will receive only $3,500 from the Reebok Outfitting Policy. As the champion, Mottano (who never defended the title) would have made $40,000.
The event drew 14,073 for a gate of $1.7 million at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. There have been 5 PPVs in Dallas and of that UFC 228 was the lowest gate of the 5 held there since UFC 103.
There were a variety of finishes and stoppage for UFC 228 that could have received the $50,000 bonus. Woodley, Jessica Andrade and Irena Aldana and Lucie Pudilova earned the bonuses.
Ratings
The UFC 228 Prelims on FX were the lowest of the year drawing only 560,000 viewers and peaking with 683,000 viewers.
The prefight show on FX averaged 271,000 viewers according to Nielsen.
The post-fight show on FS1 drew 64,000 viewers.
Sponsors
Fight week saw the announcement of 3 new “Official” UFC sponsors. Nemiroff became the “Official Vodka of the UFC,” P3 became the “Official Protein Bar of the UFC,” and Blackheart Premium Spiced Rum became the “Official Rum of the UFC” in the US. Nemiroff and P3 were in the Octagon for UFC 228. Also in the Octagon was Motel 6, MetroPCS, Modelo, Toyo Tires, Harley-Davidson the movie Predator was also featured and Monster Energy had the middle of the Octagon.
The movie, Predator also sponsored the Embedded episodes.
Toyo Tires sponsored the backstage interview which was seen on Facebook.
Odds and ends
Black belt ACQUIRED! #UFC228 pic.twitter.com/bW08El9a0x
— UFC (@ufc) September 9, 2018
The visual seems to tell the story that most BJJ practitioners know. It’s hard to be awarded black belt in jiu jitsu.
If you watched the Embedded episodes, you may have noticed Woodley wearing a CbdMD shirt which one might infer, he is a sponsor. In fact, the company sent out a PR release congratulating him. I’m sure this is something that Woodley and his camp have looked into and ensuring that he does not cross the UFC Anti-Doping Policy.
One of the judges in the Esparza-Suarez fight mistook Suarez for Esparza in the first round and gave Esparza, not Suarez a 10-8.
Xbox put out a tweet gaging interest in the event.
Two Welterweight powerhouses are facing off tonight. Who you got? #UFC https://t.co/7mwOh7E6vO pic.twitter.com/8r1bkIVFva
— Xbox (@Xbox) September 8, 2018
By the way, what was up with the poster? I realize that Till is taller but did they have to make him look like a giant?
This is an ominous tweet with a quote from Shevchenko’s manager.
Valentina Shevchenko’s manager Roger Allen says she will be given money by the UFC this week despite the UFC 228 co-main falling through.
“We are happy with the compensation they will give to take care of Valentina’s efforts.”
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) September 7, 2018
One might infer that Shevchenko was not paid her fight purse or her win bonus for making weight despite her opponents’ trouble. Once again, this is an overarching issue that manager’s must handle in the contract. Until there is a union, association and/or collective bargaining unit that will address this situation, the athletes are at the mercy of the UFC.
There was a Fan Experience held in Dallas prior to UFC 228 with numerous sponsors and athletes:
The ⭐️s will be out!
Don’t miss the #UFC228 Fan Experience! pic.twitter.com/TkDjq0EJWX
— UFC (@ufc) September 7, 2018
There were over 200,000 google searches for Tyron Woodley Saturday. On Friday, there were over 200,000 google searches for UFC 228.
Conclusion
UFC 228 was an entertaining event with a lot of finishes including Tyron Woodley making it known that he is one of the top UFC stars in the company. But, going up against two other boxing events on the same night may have hurt PPV purchases. Also, the big GGG-Canelo fight occurring the following week may have detracted the casual fan on a budget from purchasing this PPV. It would appear that this event is likely to have drawn around 175,000 to 200,000 PPV buys.
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