Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective! In this addition, we take a loot at UFC 270 at The Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Ngannou defeats Gane as his contract with the UFC expires
Zero. That is the number of fights left on Francis Ngannou’s contract with the UFC. He is still the UFC Heavyweight Champion but we do not know if we will see him again in a UFC octagon as his contract ends at the end of 2022. Yet, post-fight Ngannou’s injuries add another wrinkle into the story as there is a possibility may fight to extend Ngannou past 2022 due to the inability for him to return to the Octagon.
Despite the claims that Ngannou and White are cordial, the fact remains that the UFC head did not put the belt on Ngannou after the fight citing some vague thing he had to do in the back. And, again White was not available at the press conference. While he has stated that he has no ill will toward Ngannou the business dispute is something that is being taken personal.
Figuerido regains belt
In another Fight of the Night performance Deiveson Figueiredo won a unanimous decision victory over Brandon Moreno to take back the UFC Flyweight title. Once again, it was an action-packed fight that could have gone either way but fell in favor of the challenger. With the two now even at wins, a fourth fight is not out of the realm of possibility.
Attendance, gate and bonuses
The event was a sellout with a gate of over $5 million which set a venue record. The official attendance announced was 17,387 for a gate of $5,290,213.
.@DanaWhite says tomorrow's gate for a sold-out UFC 270 @HondaCenter will be around $5 million, breaking the prior record at the venue set by The Rolling Stones: 'Listen, man, you beat the Stones. It’s a whole ‘nother level.' https://t.co/8zckbvS24T
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) January 21, 2022
The bonuses went to Figueiredo and Moreno for Fight of the Night. Performance bonuses went to Said Nurmagomedov and Vanessa Demopoulos.
Francis Ngannou made $600K while Cyril Gane made $500K per the CSAC Commission pay sheet.
Michel Pereira $50,000 ($50,000 win)
Andre Fialho $12,000
Said Nurmagomedov $25,000 ($25,000 win)
Cody Stamann $65,000
Michael Morales $10,000 ($10,000 win)
Trevin Giles $45,000
Victor Henry $20,000 ($20,000 win)
Raoni Barcelos $29,000
Jack Della Maddelena $10,000 ($10,000 win)
Pete Rodriguez $12,000
Tony Gravely $22,000 ($22,000 win)
Saimon Oliveira $10,000
Matt Frevola $23,000 ($23,000 win)
Genaro Valdez $10,000
Vanessa Demopoulos $12,000 ($12,000 win)
Silvana Gomez Juarez $12,000
Jasmine Jasudavicius $10,000 ($10,000 win)
Kay Hansen $17,000
Uniform Compliance Pay
Francis Ngannou: $42,000
Ciryl Gane: $42,000
Brandon Moreno: $42,000
Deiveson Figueiredo: $32,000
Michel Pereira: $6,000
Andre Fialho: $4,000
Cody Stamann: $6,000
Said Nurmagomedov: $4,500
Michael Morales: $4,000
Trevin Giles: $6,000
Raoni Barcelos: $6,000
Victor Henry: $4,000
Jack Della Maddalena: $4,000
Pete Rodriguez: $4,000
Tony Gravely: $4,500
Saimon Oliveira: $4,000
Matt Frevola: $6,000
Genaro Valdez: $4,000
Silvana Gomez Juarez: $4,000
Vanessa Demopoulos: $4,000
Kay Hansen: $4,000
Jasmine Jasudavicius: $4,000
Promotion of the Fight
Dana White did a Sneakers Shopping Episode with Complex. Although the episode aired the Monday after the event, he discussed the Project Rock deal, which aired prior to the reveal the Friday before the event.
Ngannou was on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Sponsorships
Probably the biggest news is that Project Rock became the Official Global Footwear sponsor for the UFC.
The UFC Embeddeds were sponsored by Amazon’s upcoming show Reacher.
Francis Ngannou had a deal with CashApp to convert his fight night pay to crypto.
He also wore a $50K Jacob & Co. watch at the weigh-ins. The deals are significant in that they are fight week sponsorships that he was able to secure outside the normal UFC policy against non-company sponsorships.
Crytpto.com, Jose Cuervo, Toyo Tires, Modelo, Draft Kings, Monster Energy/QuikTrip, Sweet Sweat, Climbr, Fitness Coach, Manscaped, Howler Head, Jackass the Movie, ZipRecruiter, Amazon’s show Reacher and MonsterEnergy had the center.
Early in the week, Manscaped announced an extension of its deal with the UFC. Notably, it has retained control of sponsoring the championship rounds (4 &5) of main events.
The return of Johnny Knoxville and Jackass was also prevalent in promoting this event. Not only was there a promotion centered around the movie but Francis Ngannou makes a cameo.
Odds and Ends
This was the first PPV with the new ESPN+ PPV price of $74.99. It will be interesting to see if the price affects purchasing this particular PPV. White indicated he was not thrilled with the price hike but the company has no say in the price point.
The UFC Prelims on ESPN drew 421,000 viewers overall and 183,000 in the A18-49 demo which seems a little low. The telecast started a little late due to college basketball but with the NFL Playoff game between San Francisco and Green Bay on at thee same time it likely took away from a lot of casual viewers.
The UFC modified its Health and Safety Protocols which are less restrictive than the previous rules. It also made clear that athletes would be reimbursed for any costs incurred.
Bloody Elbow’s John Nash had a good breakdown on the Francis Ngannou situation.
Conclusion
Despite the mediocre ratings for the Prelims, I think that UFC 270 did well in PPV purchases on ESPN+. Mainly my belief is that the lag between UFC PPV events between December and January have the base of fans clamoring for actions. Add to the fact the Ngannou drama and a guaranteed scrap for the flyweight title it should do well. Also, the fact that UFC 269 reportedly drew 500K PPV buys should tell you that the floor for buys has gone up. I think UFC 270 likely did 500K PPV buys if not more.
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