Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. In this edition, we take a look at UFC 236 which took place at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia where fans were witness to two of the best championship fights in recent history.
Poirier earns lightweight title with win over Holloway
Dustin Poirier was too big for Max Holloway and it was clear that his power overwhelmed the 145-pound titleholder. Poirier hurt Holloway several times in the first round and despite the featherweight champion’s heart, could not fight his way back into the match.
“Paid in full,” was the mantra Poirier proclaimed about his win. Poirier had made his way back from losses to Conor McGregor and Michael Johnson on his journey to the championship. He finally got his chance and now has a chance to unify the titles against Khabib Nurmogomedov in what is rumored to be September in Abu Dhabi.
Paid In Full pic.twitter.com/VLwZ1Zorg9
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) April 14, 2019
Holloway will be influenced to return to his Featherweight division and the UFC is likely hoping that Alexander Volkanovski can defeat Jose Aldo next month to secure a date between the two for the 145 title.
Adesanya takes middleweight title from Gastelum
In what was a back and forth fight (and likely 2-2 going into the last round) Israel Adesanya defeated Kelvin Gastelum to win the interim welterweight title and a shot at to unify the middleweight title with a showdown against Robert Whittaker sometime in the future in likely a big stadium on the continent of Australia.
There was a point during the fight that Gastelum had Adesanya hurt on his feet but instead of trying to finish him, Kelvin went for the takedown. One can only assume that Gastelum was tired himself and could not continue on his feet.
But Adesanya poured it on in the 5th round to earn the victory. One may argue that the ref could have stopped the fight in the final seconds of the fight. Clearly, Gastelum was in no shape to continue but had the heart to finish.
It was the first time that the UFC awarded two Fight of the Nights with the main and co-main events drawing the $50,000 bonuses. There were no Performance Bonuses due to the dual FOTNs.
The attendance and gate for UFC 236 did not break records for UFC events at the Philips Arena but it definitely drew a lot of people for this event. The event drew 14,297 for a gate of $1,908,721.
Past Atlanta, GA UFC PPV events:
UFC 88 (9/06/2008) Evans-Liddell: 14,736 for a gate of $2.6M
UFC 145 (04/14/2012) Jones-Evans: 15,545 for a gate of $2.2M
Israel Adesanya and Max Holloway made $350,000 each for their respective fights. All of the salaries are compiled here.
Promotional Guideline Payouts (compiled via MMA Junkie)
Dustin Poirier: $30,000
def. Max Holloway: $40,000
Israel Adesanya: $30,000
def. Kelvin Gastelum: $30,000
Khalil Rountree: $5,000
def. Eryk Anders: $5,000
Dwight Grant: $3,500
def. Alan Jouban: $10,000
Nikita Krylov: $10,000
def. Ovince Saint Preux: $20,000
Matt Frevola: $3,500
def. Jalin Turner: $3,500
Alexandre Pantoja: $5,000
def. Wilson Reis: $10,000
Zelim Imadaev: $3,500
def. Max Griffin: $5,000
Khalid Taha: $3,500
def. Boston Salmon: $3,500
Belal Muhammad: $5,000
def. Curtis Millender: $4,000
Andre Soukhamthath: $5,000
def. Montel Jackson: $3,500
Poliana Botelho: $4,000
def. Lauren Mueller: $3,500
Brandon Davis: $4,000
def. Randy Costa: $3,500
Sponsorships
For the first time, the UFC released a photo of the Octagon match which featured its core sponsors as well as the Cinemax series Warrior. In addition, in the Octagon was Pari-Match, the international sports betting site sponsor of the UFC. Also, convenience store RaceTrac shared space on the Octagon with Monster Energy.
The sponsors on the mat were as follows:
Monster Energy: Official Energy Drink of UFC
Modelo: Official Beer of UFC
P3: Official Protein Snack of UFC
Devour: Official Frozen Food of UFC
Nemiroff: Official Vodka of UFC
BODYARMOR: Official Sports Drink of UFC
Warrior: The new original series from Cinemax, premiering April 5
Poker Stars: Official Gaming and Poker partner of UFC
UFC 236 takes place in Atlanta, Georgia at the State Farm Arena.
UFC partner, Heed, offered data on the strikes of UFC competitors via sensors in the gloves of fighters. This was explained during a part of episode 3 of UFC Embedded.
The Embedded events were sponsored by the video game Fallout 76.
Odds and ends
It was the first time that ESPN+ became the sole PPV provider in the U.S. and it came with headaches for many that decided to make the PPV purchase last minute. Many were directed to a page that indicated they could not purchase the PPV. Dana White acknowledged the issues and promised that it would be better by the next PPV. Another critique of the UFC PPV. No rewind. Also, if you missed a portion of the PPV, you could not immediately turn back to the beginning. Instead you had to wait for the full replay to be uploaded on the web site. Finally, one last critique is that ESPN + was noncommittal about how long you could view a broadcast after purchase.
ESPN ratings for the Prelims were yet to be released at the time of this post but one might them to be north of 1 million viewers.
Kelvin Gastelum actually took off his fight shorts in his hurried rush to take off his sweats for the Octagon and had to put them back on before entering the Octagon.
With the main and co-main event being so good, there were some outstanding performances that did not receive the official bonuses. This includes Brandon Davis, Khalid Taha, Nikita Krylov and a revamped Khalil Rountree.
From December, Max Holloway has his own Reebok, “It is what it is, headband.”
Shaq was a notable attendee at UFC 236 as he was shown in the crowd during the PPV.
There were over 1 million google searches for UFC 236 although the number may be misleading as some of these numbers are likely due to the inability to order the PPV.
The UFC marketed the co-main and main event with a Game of Thrones-inspired theme with the popular HBO series returning.
Rich Franklin was announced as heading to the UFC Hall of Fame this July.
Conclusion
We would normally give a buy estimate for this PPV but it’s highly unlikely that ESPN releases any numbers related to the buy rate of UFC 236. If one had to give an educated guess, I would suggest that despite the buy problems for many fans, it still draws 425,000 PPV buys which is very good. Adesanya is a rising star in the company and Poirier will get more notoriety as he should face Khabib this fall.
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