UFC 251 Payout Perspective

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective.  This time we take a look at Fight Island and UFC 251 on Yas Island.

Usman dominates Masvidal

Despite the fact that everyone was excited to see this matchup, for Masvidal to take the fight on 6 days’ notice, the result seemed natural.  Kamaru Usman used his superior wrestling and takedowns to mute Masvidal and his striking.  Masvidal’s strategy seemed to be to overwhelm the champion in the first round in an attempt to get Usman out of there early as he knew he did not have the proper training to sustain 5 rounds. 

Usman utilized foot stomps and shoulder strikes while in the clinch with Masvidal.  It was clear that despite short bursts of energy, he was in no shape to deal with Usman.  Despite the fact that most viewers thought the fight lacked excitement, it was the pat to victory for Usman who had to agree to the fight happening after Gilbert Burns tested positive for COVID-19. 

Bonuses

Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade earned Fight of the Night in what was a 3-round war.  The debut of Jiri Prochazka was electric as he showboated and KO’d Volkan Oezdemir in the second round.  Also, Davey Grant knocked out Martin Day in the third round of the opening bout on Fight Island.

Ratings

The UFC 251 Prelims drew 809,000 viewers which was good enough for first overall in the cable ratings on Saturday. Notably, in May UFC 249 scored over 1.1 million viewers on ESPN but only landed 2nd. This time around, 251 scored high marks in all of the key young demos.

Sponsorships

Geico and Boost Mobile seem to be stepping up their sponsorship efforts during UFC broadcasts as both were prevalent throughout.

The video game reveal of EA Sports, fourth edition of the UFC series was announced with Masvidal and Israel Adesanya as the cover athletes.  Its signage was in the Octagon.  Also in the Octagon was Geico, P3, Body Armor, Hudson Shipping, Manscaped, Devour, signage for Abu Dhabi included the #inabudhabi, #staycurious as well as a web site for the country, Boohooman.com and Monster Energy had the center of the Octagon.

Boohooman.com is a men’s clothing company.

EA UFC 4 had the fighter prep point.

Toyo Tires sponsored the Embedded Series.

Also of note, Venum was announced as the UFC’s new clothing partner starting in Spring 2021. 

Odds and ends

On Monday, The Athletic reported that UFC 251 drew 1.3 million PPV buys which would be the most since the Khabib-Conor showdown at UFC 229. It was later broken down as 900K domestic buys. Still a very good PPV considering it did not have the usual marquee names to it although it had 3 title fights and a brooding rivalry at the top.

The beginning of the UFC PPV broadcast paid respect to Khabib Nurmogomedov’s father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, who passed away from complications from COVID-19. 

There was a lot of costs associated with putting on the event in Abu Dhabi.  However, it was revealed that the country’s tourism board was paying for much of the logistics which would include travel, hotels, tests, etc.  This deal was made in addition to the ongoing deal with the country to hold events there at least one-time per year.  So, even with the number of tests that the company had to do, a lot of it was paid for by a third party.

Dana White extended an olive branch in his trademark spat with John Oliver.  Proceeds from a UF-SEA t-shirt which the company was selling to promote Fight Island would go to an Oliver-support charity.

While many wished that the fights would take place on the beach, it was likely to be held inside.  With the time of the fights occurring in the morning, there would be too many variables to consider with an outdoor telecast.  Although the octagon on the beach was a nice visual, holding fights indoors was always going to happen.

Masvidal, a Trump supporter, sent out a message in support of Goya Foods after its CEO heaped praise on the President.  He also was seen sporting a Trump Mask during fight week.

Don’t listen to the #woke mob #Goya beans are the best beans with some white rice. I’m a Latino son of immigrants that was blessed enough to eat #goyafoods in good times and in the bad times #supernecessary

— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) July 10, 2020

ESPN wrote an interesting background story on Usman and his father who is in prison.  Although he seemed to be overlooked during Fight Week, he is one of top fighters that the organization has right now. 

In leadup to UFC 251, UFC COO Lawrence Epstein indicated that there were 11 positive tests from the promotion’s time at the UFC Apex although none were fighters. 

UFC PR did a good job of getting out pics and B-roll to media outlets to use.  It certainly was helpful and one might imagine that it was done to facilitate tourism for the region. 

UFC had over 2 million google searches on Saturday.

It was Paige VanZant’s last fight under her current contract and the fact that Dana White said that she should look into testing free agency tells you all you need to know about her worth with the UFC.  Once a company darling that secured sponsorships and made an appearance on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, she is now disposable.  I would suspect she moves to Bellator or perhaps ONE Championship. 

Conclusion

The 1.3 million buys worldwide is impressive and is a card that did not have a major star although we may now call Masvidal one since its likely his involvement created the spike in the buy rate.  The UFC made out well despite the fact that the original main event fell through. Its proving that its one of the best adapters to the pandemic when it comes to the return of sports. Obviously, the assist from Abu Dhabi has helped tremendously with logistics. But the production and fights have been exciting and this card was very good.