Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time around we take a look at UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden where Daniel Cormier took care of Derrick Lewis.
Double Champ takes care of Derrick Lewis
Daniel Cormier made easy work of Derrick Lewis using wrestling to negate Lewis’ KO power. DC easily tapped out Lewis in the 2nd round.
DC now sets his sights on Brock Lesnar with just one fight left on his contract. However, you’d have to think that if Jon Jones pops up on the radar, that will be a fight to make.
As for Lewis, I would suspect he take some time off before getting back in the Octagon. Two fights within a month is hard for any MMA fighter including a heavyweight like Lewis.
Jacare KOs Chris Weidman
Jacare Souza is a superior grappler, yet showed some flashy hands and dropped Chris Weidman in the final round. The fight went back and forth and won Fight of the Night. But Souza showed some strong combinations which stunned Weidman throughout the course of the fight and one to the former champ’s temple which put him down for good.
After this fight, Souza should be on the short list of fighters awaiting the winner of the Kelvin Gastelum-Robert Whittaker fight and perhaps he finally gets his title shot.
Attendance, gate and bonuses
UFC 230 drew 18,201 for a gate of $2,8471,718.16. The bonuses of the night went to Chris Weidman and Jacare Souza for Fight of the Night and Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier for Performances of the Night. Each earned $50,000 bonuses.
According to secondary ticket seller SeatGeek, it was the second highest ticket for a UFC New York event outside of UFC 205.
Promotion of the Fight
Daniel Cormier joined the FOX NFL crew during halftime of Thursday night’s Raiders-49ers game to promote UFC 230.
He also did the intro on Fox Sports for his Saints.
Today, a dream came true. I had the incredible honor of opening the NFL on Fox broadcast. I am a lifelong Saints fan, so this was truly amazing for me. I’m so thankful for all the opportunities I’ve gained over the years through @foxsports and the @ufc. I’ll never forget this one pic.twitter.com/m6XXSKs1mj
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) October 28, 2018
Cormier did a lot of media. He appeared on the Complex YouTube channel and played Connect 4 with Tony Mui.
As seen on Embedded, Derrick Lewis did a promotion at a Houston Rocket’s game and even sank a free throw to win money for his charity.
Sponsorships
The big sponsorship news for UFC 230 was the fast food wars that took over as DC and Lewis previously sparred over Popeyes Chicken. The southern-based chicken restaurant forged a deal with Lewis. In response, Carl’s Jr. came to the double champ’s corner. It was an example of how sponsorships can happen organically. Obviously, this may not happen for every UFC fighter but due to the visibility of the event and the social media followers for each, a sponsor’s deal became viable.
Embedded was sponsored by Air Force Reserves.
Motel 6 was also a sponsor of the co-main event.
Chris Weidman had a Monster patch on his walkout shirt and shorts which may indicate he has an individual sponsor with the company.
In addition, Cormier drew individual sponsor deals with Monster Energy Drinks and Nemiroff Vodka.
Inside the Octagon, Nemiroff Vodka, Modelo, Hospital for Special Surgery, Toyo Tires, the video game EA UFC 3, Metro PCS, Monster and convenience store Circle K shared an Octagon corner, Body Armor, P3 and Monster Energy had the center of the Octagon.
Modelo had the Fighter Prep Point.
Modelo also introduced its “Fighting Spirit” award of sorts to Daniel Cormier.
P3 had sponsorship space on the shoulder of the fighter’s walkout shirt.
EA UFC 3 was featured once again in pre-fight promos.
Toyo Tires also sponsored the Backstage Interviews. This one included Megan Olivi speaking with Daniel Cormier.
Ratings
UFC PPV Prelims on FS1: 205,000
UFC Prelims: 635,000
UFC PPV Post-Fight Show on FS1: 188,000
Odds and ends
UFC 230 drew over 1 million searches which is above average and bodes well for the PPV buys.
Paul Felder did an excellent job as color commentator along with Joe Rogan and Jon Anik on the PPV.
The Last Stylebender has one of the best nicknames in the MMA game and is someone to watch.
Outside of the octagon, Ben Askren was the darling of UFC 230.
Notice that the gloves have the 25th anniversary logo on them instead of the usual UFC logo.
Lando Vannata-Matt Frevola draw should have won the FOTN honors.
The Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier rivalry remains alive despite the fact both sides say its over.
Conclusion
I was surprised by the amount of promotion for this event. Granted, it was the UFC’s annual November show at MSG, but the main event did not look all too competitive on paper. The event did have some good exposure with Cormier on Thursday Night Football’s halftime and the fast food wars with Derrick Lewis. I would think this event does above average for a UFC PPV. One might expect a buy rate in the 375K-400K range.
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