UFC 248 drew the lowest attendance at T-Mobile Arena since March 2018. The announced attendance was15,077 with a live gate of $2,742,906.20.
The co-main event earned honors for Fight of the Night as Weili Zhang successfully defended her strawweight title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. The back and forth fight which saw Joanna’s forehead swell due to a hematoma was won by Zhang. The Performance Bonuses went to Beneil Dariush as he knocked out Drakkar Close in the second round of their fight and Sean O’Malley as he returned from a prolonged layoff to stop Jose Quinonez. Each earned $50,000.
The main event featured Israel Adesanya as he defended his middleweight title against Yoel Romero. Adesanya won via unanimous decision in a rather mundane fight.
Payout Perspective:
The attendance and gate were likely affected by the Coronavirus scare as well as the lack of big names on this fight card. Zhang-Joanna was one of the best fights from start to finish with action all the way through the 5 rounds. On the other end, Adesanya-Romero saw an uneven fight which was one on points by the champ.
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