Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 248 which took place on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Adesanya outpoints Romero
It was one of the ugliest fights in UFC main event history as Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero fought a 5-round disappointment. Both fighters did not engage with the other and despite theatrics from Romero in demanding the champion come forward, Adesanya did not have to oblige and did not. Dana White was not happy with the fight and made it known in the post-fight press conference.
Despite blasting Adesanya after the fight in the Octagon post-event, Romero did not do anything which would suggest he did his best to bring the fight to Stylebender. And Adesanya played it cautious throughout, picked his spots, but did not attempt to go in to end Romero. He did win on points but that is not how you become a legend.
Instant classic between Zhang and Joanna
A 180-degree difference from the main event, the co-main event delivered with great performances by champion and challenger. In the end, Weili Zhang defeated Joanna Jedrzeczyk to retain the women’s strawweight title. The fight saw impressive striking and Jedrzeczyk developing a huge hematoma on her forehead.
It was one of the best fights in recent memory and its assured of a rematch.
Due to concerns with the Coronavirus and the lack of a top-star on the card, the attendance was the lowest since March 2018. The announced attendance was 15,077 for a gate of $2,742.906.20.
Cheaper to come to #UFC248 than to buy it on ESPN+
— Ryan McKinnell (@RyanMcKinnell) March 8, 2020
Still plenty of time to get down here for the co-main and main, Vegas… pic.twitter.com/Nr9EpFnyQ2
The bonuses went to Zhang and Joanna for Fight of the Night and to Sean O’Malley and Beneil Dariush. All received $50,000 bonuses.
Payouts
You can find the complete list of payouts here. As well as the sheet provided by the NAC below:
UFC 248 Paysheet by MMA Payout on Scribd
Promotion of the Fight
Only @YoelRomeroMMA could be this terrifying and inspirational at the same time 😨 #UFC248 (via @Phil_Sports) pic.twitter.com/6E0SRIEscD
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 6, 2020
What was initially thought to be a harmless joke, is now a pandemic. Joanna Jedrzejczyk made light of the coronavirus in an Instagram post which she deleted. Zhang had to leave her home in China to train for this fight and Joanna made light of it which drew the champion’s ire.
Despite a language barrier, the intensity between Zhang and Joanna was made clear during the staredowns.
ESPN did a big cover story on Israel Adesanya about being “The UFC’s Next Big Thing.”
As for the main event, the memorable dance-off at the initial media for the event was the brightest moment in the hype for this fight:
Sponsors
The latest sponsor for the UFC is Assault Fitness, a developer of fitness equipment. Also in the Octagon was Monster Energy sharing the Octagon post with Terrible Convenience store
Terrible is tonight’s convenience store sharing and Octagon post with #Monster. #UFC248 pic.twitter.com/lyLuaowxKB
— Jason Cruz (@dilletaunt) March 8, 2020
Also in the Octagon was Modelo, PokerStars, P3, Toyo Tires, Buffalo Wild Wings, Devour Frozen Foods, Nemiroff, Manscaped and Monster Energy in the middle. Modelo had the tale of the tape.
Odds and ends
There was one fight that was called off as Emily Whitmire missed weight and was taken to the hospital as a result. Her fight with Polyana Viana was cancelled.
Sean O’Malley was back in the Octagon and was impressive in it. This story from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto:
They were all kids sizes. I asked him, “Why do you have dozens of kids shoes?” He told me when Reebok signed a sponsorship deal with him, they gave him $10k to spend on whatever he wanted. He spent it all on kids shoes, and has been slowly giving them away to kids in need and
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) March 7, 2020
It looks like Vegas didn’t do to well with the co-main:
#UFC248 update and 🚨 #MajorWager 🚨 Alert: Per @BetMGM's Scott Shelton (@scottatmirage) on Weili-Jedrzejczyk: Weili now -250. "We are gonna be stuck big if Weili wins. We took $180,000 on her at -180." @Covers
— Patrick Everson (@Covers_Vegas) March 8, 2020
In the crowd, Brian Ortega got into a physical altercation with Jay Park, the translator/manager of The Korean Zombie. KZ was in the restroom according to his social media description of what went down. Ortega hit Park. Since then, Ortega has apologized for the incident.
Zhang’s cornerperson also served as her interpreter and got stage fright. One could say it was not a good night for interpreters.
Conclusion
While we do not see PPV buys, you might surmise that this event did fairly well based on the viewership from the Prelims on ESPN. The UFC Prelims did not score as well as PBC on Fox which aired at the same time, but PBC was on the network with a broader audience. I would suggest that UFC 248 played well with hardcore fans and may have received some mosre viewers due to Zhang’s popularity. But, we are not counting the possibility of Chinese viewers. I would think this did between 250,000-300,000 viewers buying the event on ESPN+.
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