Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 259 taking place at The Apex in Las Vegas.
A trio of title matchup took place on Saturday night with one new champion via disqualification.
Blachowicz too big for Adesanya
Israel Adesanya attempts at a double championship went by the wayside as it was clear that Jan Blachowicz came out with a game plan the neutralized the middleweight champion’s explosive strking. Blachowicz dominated Adesanya to retain the UFC light heavyweight championship. In doing so, he dominated Adesanya with wrestling. This strategy earned him a couple 10-8 rounds on the scorecards as he cruised to a unanimous decision victory.
One might assume that this will be it for Adesanya at 205. He came in at only 200 pounds at weigh-ins and likely gave up 20-30 pounds. He would do much better in the 185 pound division.
For the Polish champ, perhaps a defense against the standby fighter on Saturday night, Glover Texeira should be next. As for Adesanya, he’ll be back defending his middleweight title and could see a rematch with Robert Whittaker on the horizon.
Nunes stops Anderson
It was not even a matchup as Amanda Nunes walked through Megan Anderson to defend her Women’s Featherweight championship. At this point, Nunes has cleared out the Featherweight division and it would not be surprising if this division is shuttered. Nunes still has competitors in the bantamweight division but at 145, there is not a soul that can deal with her.
Aljo wins belt via DQ
It was clearly an illegal knee and if you are the champion of the division, you should know the rules of the sport. Petr Yan lost his UFC Bantamweight title to Aljamain Sterling on Saturday. It was clear that Sterling was concussed and could not continue.
One might expect that this rematch will happen as soon as Sterling is cleared by a medical doctor. However, social media is already inferring that Sterling may take on a returning Henry Cejudo. The former champ was not happy about learning this.
Paper champ ducking the rematch already 🤦🏻♂ https://t.co/bHygmTbGcB
— Petr “No Mercy” Yan (@PetrYanUFC) March 8, 2021
The bonuses went to Kennedy Nzechukwu, Carlos Ulberg, Uros Medic and Kai Kara-France. All received $50K. Fight of the Night went to Nezechukwu and Ulberg while performance bonuses went to Medic and Kara-France.
Ratings
The UFC Prelims on ESPN drew 1.208 million viewers for 2nd overall in cable Saturday. 598,000 viewers in A18-49. First in cable was the UNC-Duke game which preceded the prelims on ESPN. Also of note, there was a 17 minute overrun and ESPN moved the beginning of the televised prelims to ESPN2. The 17 minutes was 6th overall in cable with 447,000 viewers.
Uniform Promotional Payouts
Jan Blachowicz: $40,000
Israel Adesanya: $40,000
Amanda Nunes: $40,000
Megan Anderson: $30,000
Aljamain Sterling: $30,000
Petr Yan: $40,000
Islam Makhachev: $5,000
Drew Dober: $15,000
Aleksandar Rakic: $5,000
Thiago Santos: $20,000
Dominick Cruz: $15,000
Casey Kenney: $5,000
Kyler Phillips: $3,500
Song Yadong: $5,000
Askar Askarov: $4,000
Joseph Benavidez: $20,000
Kai Kara-France: $5,000
Rogerio Bontorin: $4,000
Tim Elliott: $10,000
Jordan Espinosa: $5,000
Kennedy Nzechukwu: $3,500
Carlos Ulberg: $3,500
Sean Brady: $4,000
Jake Matthews: $10,000
Amanda Lemos: $4,000
Livinha Souza: $4,000
Uros Medic: $3,500
Aalon Cruz: $3,500
Trevin Jones: $3,500
Mario Bautista: $4,000
Sponsorships
Of course, the surprising news of the evening came when Dominick Cruz blasted Hans Molenkamp of Monster Energy suggesting they do a charity fight. Dana White addressed the situation by saying that the company has been good to the UFC and Monster can decide who they want to sponsor. Cruz claimed in his post-fight interview that Molenkamp wanted to be a friend of the fighters and that he shouldn’t have to do this if he is being sponsored by Monster Energy. He also claimed that Molenkamp wanted ‘clout.’
GuaranteedRate.com, Howler Head, P3, Blackheart Rum, Modelo, DraftKings, Parimatch, Watchgag.com, Monster Energy, U.S. Army, Devour, Hudson River, Toyot Tires, Trojan Condoms, Watchgang.com and Monster Energy in the center of the Octagon.
Manscaped.com had the outside of the Octagon where the corners stand.
The biggest sponsor news was that DraftKings and the UFC agreed to a 5-year deal an estimated value of $350 million per year for the Boston-based company to be the official Fantasy League and Sports Betting sponsor in North America. Broken down, its $100 million in rights fee to the UFC plus $250 million marketing and media obligations. In exchange, a part of the deal will see more signage including a clock fixed near the Octagon as shown for UFC 259.
Israel Adesanya appeared in a new Puma deal. He signed the sponsorship last fall which makes him the face of the Oceania division but also includes global marketing.
HyperIce sponsored the Embedded series and as part of that we got a little mini-commercial with Reed Harris talking to Amanda Nunes about how the product helps with the double champs recovery.
Also, during an Embedded episode this time around, Daniel Cormier presented Adesanya with a chain commemorating “The Last Sylebender” as a top-rated fighter on EA UFC 4. Only, Jon Jones, Max Holloway, Valentina Shevchenko, Amanda Nunes and now Adesanya hold that distinction.
Odds and ends
UFC COO Lawrence Epstein appeared on Sportico’s Ask Anything vlog to discuss a variety of subjects including the DraftKings deal.
There was some issue with the New Zealand Silver Fern mark as it was on the City Kickboxing uniform. The UFC indicated that they wanted it removed although the Rugby team that owns the mark claimed they did not make any demands.
Despite the fact that there was little jiu jitsu used in Aleksandar Rakic’s victory over Thiago Santos, he received his Brown Belt in jiu jitsu. Some, including Daniel Cormier questioned the award of the belt. Don’t be that guy. It was clear that Rakic was going to receive it if he had prevailed. The fact that there was not a display in superior jiu jitsu means nothing because it’s the culmination of all of the sweat and time on the mats. The fact he received it on television was a present to Rakic so that the viewers could see it.
Conclusion
The ratings for the Prelims reflect an above average buy rate for this event. Certainly, 3 title fights not up against boxing should help the buys here. I would suspect if we do hear the buy rate it will be around 400,000.
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