Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. In this episode we take a look at UFC 250 which took place this past Saturday at The Apex in Las Vegas.
Nunes destroys Spencer
Amanda Nunes handily defeated Felicia Spencer on Saturday to retain her women’s Featherweight title. Although the referee or Spencer’s corner could have stopped the fight during any of the last 3 rounds, they chose to keep it going.
The only issue for Nunes may be an issue with her right leg from throwing such devastating leg kicks. The NAC has held Nunes out until December or until she receives clearance from a physician. Nunes’ wife, Nina Ansaroff his pregnant with their first child so we will see if Nunes waits until the birth prior to fighting. At this point, she is not sure who would be next as she has cleared out the 135- and 145-pound divisions.
Garbrandt hits walk off on Raphael Assuncao
The return of Cody Garbrandt saw a new hairstyle and back ink. It also saw a new style with the same power as Garbrandt ducked and through a huge right hand that found Assuncao to know him out as the horn went off to end the second round. There was no need for another round as the referee immediately called the fight off.
It was a nice return for Garbrandt who needed a win badly to remain relevant in the bantamweight division.
Purses
Nunes earned $350,000 plus another $100,000 for her victory over Spencer. Yet, she was not making the requisite $500,000 flat that other champs are making.
The rest of the pay is here.
Reebok Payouts
Amanda Nunes: $40,000
Felicia Spencer: $30,000
Raphael Assuncao: $20,000
Cody Garbrandt: $5,000
Aljamain Sterling: $10,000
Cory Sandhagen: $5,000
Neil Magny: $20,000
Anthony Martin: $10,000
Eddie Wineland: $15,000
Sean O’Malley: $4,000
Alex Caceres: $20,000
Chase Hooper: $3,500
Ian Heinisch: $4,000
Gerald Meerschaert: $10,000
Cody Stamann: $5,000
Brian Kelleher: $5,000
Charles Byrd: $4,000
Maki Pitolo: $3,500
Jussier Formiga: $15,000
Alex Perez: $5,000
Alonzo Menifield: $3,500
Devin Clark: $5,000
Evan Dunham: $20,000
Hebert Burns: $3,500
Bonuses
There were four bonuses given out with no Fight of the Night. The honors went to Aljamain Sterling, Garbrandt, Sean O’Malley and Alex Perez. Each received $50K.
Ratings
The UFC PPV Prelims drew 775,000 viewers although it was second in cable on Saturday. The 4-hour broadcast did well with its core demo of young males 18-49 as it scored 0.40, the most for the night among the group.
Also, UFC Live which preceded the Prelims on ESPN drew 190,000 viewers. The UFC Countdown show drew 140,000 viewers.
Sponsors
The sponsor this time around included Toyo Tires, BodyArmor, P3, Nemiroff, Thorne, DraftKings, the U.S. Army, 7-11/Monster, Devour, Modelo and Monster Energy had the center.
The latest Russell Crowe movie, Unhinged, was also advertised in the Octagon. Manscaped had the corner platform outside the octagon.
Thorne, which produces the supplements for the UFC, sponsored the UFC Embedded series this time around.
Odds and ends
Notably, no mention of the Black Lives Matter movement at the beginning of the PPV or Prelims. When asked post-event, White demurred on responding directly.
It appears as though Nunes may be out until the end of the year. With a baby on the way, it would seem she may sit out until 2021 unless there’s a fight that might interest her. As well as compensate her well.
Is putting up tweets during fights a way to get people not to say anything bad about the event?
Although it is Pride Month, nary a word about Nunes or a way to market her to the LGBTQ Community.
Middleweight Ian Heinisch almost had his fight canceled due to a corner person testing positive for COVID-19. Heinisch explained post-fight that his corner person had an inconclusive test and found to be negative. Notably, Heinisch stated that the corner person had been around other athletes during fight week and due to that, it may been a big issue.
Dana White was not at Octagon-side due to the fact that he does not want to wear a mask.
The small octagon was a major selling point as the consensus is that it facilitates more action.
Sean O’Malley noted that he wants to renegotiate his contract in his post-fight interview.
During an interview, Dana White continued a war of marks with John Oliver of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. Oliver had criticized White for bringing the UFC back too early and he responded of course. Notably, White had his lawyers trademark UF-SEA among other marks for its Fight Island debut. But, White admitted taking it from Oliver. In turn, White also had a mug with the Last Week Tonight logo visible during an interview as a way to jab Oliver. But, the HBO comedy show may have the last laugh as they have applied for an abandoned UFC mark “YOU WILL SUBMIT” and will use it.
#LastWeekTonight wasn't messing around, the LLC for John Oliver's Program has applied for YOU WILL SUBMIT, an old mark the #UFC abandoned pic.twitter.com/iYyBtIaSlt
— Jason Cruz (@dilletaunt) June 8, 2020
Conclusion
No verification on the buy rate as of yet but you can assume that it did not do as well as last month for the simple fact that we have not heard a leaked number. One might assume that due to the less-than-stellar card and the fact that there has been live UFC events on ESPN the past couple weeks we might see a smaller number than UFC 249. Somewhere around 250-300K might be a fair number to guess.
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