Welcome to another episode of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 243 from Melbourne, Australia where the company drew another attendance record and saw Israel Adesanya claim the UFC middleweight title.
Adesanya is King of the Middleweights
The matchup that sold this event, Robert Whittaker versus Israel Adesanya was determined a pick’em by gambling experts. But, “The Last Stylebender” used his reach and movement to win exchanges with Whittaker and eventually dropped the former champ with a right which sent him to the canvas to be finished. Coming off of an 18 month absence from the Octagon, Whittaker looked solid but was outmatched by Adesanya’s ability to move in and out.
Adesanya likely gets Paula Costa who was sitting front row at the event. Costa is a big middleweight and will be a test for Adesanya who will have to rely on his kickboxing skills to avoid the power of the Brazilian.
Attendance, gate and bonuses
The event at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne drew 57,125 with a gate of $5,470,000. The capacity broke the previous record in Melbourne at UFC 193 in November 2015. The attendance and gate are impressive considering this event was based on one fight. Yet, the main event between Whittaker and Adesanya was a dual between two fighters from Australia and New Zealand. It also featured several fighters from Australia and nearby New Zealand.
The bonuses saw Adesanya, Yorgan de Castro, Brad Riddell and Jamie Mullarkey earned the honors. Adesanya and de Castro won per their stoppages. Riddell and Mullarkey had a brutal fight which earned Fight of the Night Honors and saw Riddell earn the victory.
Reebok Compliance Payouts
Adesanya and Whittaker received $40,000 payouts as they were both considered champions here.
Sponsorships
TAB, a sports betting outfit, was touted as the presenting sponsor for UFC 243. Its logo was visible in the Octagon as well as on the official Reebok wear.
UFC sponsors in the Octagon for UFC 243 included TAB, Nemiroff, Air Asia, Monster Energy and Circle K, Devour and P3. Also, Bisley workwear, which has been in the UFC octagon in the past, was on the mat. Also notable, Etoro, a social trading and multi-asset brokerage company that includes the trade of cryptocurrencies was in the Octagon. Finally, Doom Eternal is an upcoming video game that will be released this November.
Toyo Tires sponsored the post-fight interviews and P3 sponsored the post-fight bonuses
They included cartoon-type posters for Whittaker-Adesanya since it was Marvel Stadium.
Melbourne main event gets the @marvel comic book treatment #UFC243 pic.twitter.com/xhiZ3lGUvf
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 3, 2019
MetroPCS had the tale of the tape. Nemiroff presented the co-main event of Hooker-Iaquinta.
Motel 6 sponsored the UFC Embedded episodes.
Bixler, another UFC sponsor, gave out rings to participants. Adesanya was seen trying on his ring on a UFC Embedded.
Odds and ends
Obviously, the Adesanya dance routine prior to the fight was something not seen in UFC Championship walkouts in the past.
And the most lit walk out of all-time goes to …@Stylebender #UFC243 pic.twitter.com/OYYhWYwP6P
— UFC (@ufc) October 6, 2019
In a unique move, Dhiego Lima is seeking to overturn the scorecards in his split decision victory Saturday. In all reality, Lima dominated the entire fight and even the announcers were laughing as to how a judge could have missed that the fight was Lima’s.
New Zealander Dan Hooker did some local media to promote UFC 243.
For some reason, Paul Pierce was on an episode of Embedded and met with Israel Adesanya.
Al Iaquinta wore an American Ethanol t-shirt while training for his fight against Dan Hooker. Perhaps still a sponsor or maybe just an old shirt from the former sponsor in the UFC.
In perhaps some synergy, Robert Whittaker wore a Doom shirt during episode 1 of Embedded. The video game was a sponsor for UFC 243. Whittaker professed his love of gaming as we saw him playing the game.
There were over 1 million google searches for UFC 243 on Saturday night. Notably, GGG’s fight Saturday night drew over 100,000 google searches.
Conclusion
With 1 million google searches, UFC 243 drew a good share of interest for Saturday. While the overall card may not have enticed the usual casual fan, a great deal of interest was on the middleweight battle between Adesanya and Whittaker. I would think that the show grabs 275,000 PPV buys.
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