Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 273 held at the VyStar Arena in Florida.
Volkanovski dominates Zombie
Alexander Volkanovski successfully defended his Featherweight title by stopping The Korean Zombie in the fourth round of his title defense. Volkanovski destroyed TKZ through the first three rounds and Zombie was not putting up much of a defense but, per his nickname, keep coming forward. Thankfully, Herb Dean stepped in after another flurry by Volkanovski in the 4th.
Volkanovski could stake claim to being the best pound-for-pound champion right now. He indicated that he may move up to lightweight and face a top challenger in that division as he’s taken out most of the top challengers to his title.
Sterling defeats Yan in rematch
Certainly controversial, but probably the right decision as Aljamain Sterling used his wrestling to dominate Petr Yan in the middle rounds. However, Sterling tired, let up or Yan just turned it up in the latter rounds to make it close.
Sterling called out TJ Dillashaw who was in the crowd to watch. Arguably, you could probably say Yan deserves another shot, but we shall see.
Chimaev receives first true test
It was the first test for the Swedish National, Chimaev, against the Brazilian Burns and was one of the best fights of the year thus far. Burns stunned Chimaev on several occasions during the fight and withstood heavy pressure from the undefeated welterweight. In the end, it was Chimaev who took the victory and it looks like a showdown with Colby Covington as he moves up the welterweight title.
Although Burns lost, did he really? Despite getting cut early, he withstood the pressure and put some big shots on Chimaev who looked like he was going to fall on a couple big blows.
Bonuses
Fight of the Night
Chimaev-Burns
Performance Bonuses
Volkanovski
Aleksie Olsenik
Attendance
The event at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida drew 14,605 in attendance which is off from the 15,269 that attended one of the first inside arena sporting events in March 2020.
Ratings
The UFC 273 Prelims drew 791,000 viewers on Saturday night. The A18-49 viewership drew 367,000 viewers per Nielsen.
UFC Promotional Compliance Payouts
(as compiled by MMA Junkie)
Alexander Volkanovski: $42,000
def. Chan Sung Jung: $32,000
Aljamain Sterling: $42,000
def. Petr Yan: $42,000
Khamzat Chimaev: $4,500
def. Gilbert Burns: $16,000
Mackenzie Dern: $6,000
def. Tecia Torres: $11,000
Mark Madsen: $4,500
def. Vinc Pichel: $6,000
Ian Garry: $4,000
def. Darian Weeks: $4,000
Anthony Hernandez: $4,500
def. Josh Fremd: $4,000
Raquel Pennington: $16,000
def. Aspen Ladd: $6,000
Mike Malott: $4,000
def. Mickey Gall: $11,000
Aleksei Oleinik: $11,000
def. Jared Vanderaa: $4,500
Piera Rodriguez: $4,000
def. Kay Hansen: $4,500
Julio Arce: $6,000
def. Daniel Santos: $4,000
Sponsorships
The biggest sponsor news came with the announcement of the Fan Bonus of the Night which allows fans to vote on Crypto.com the best performances of the night. The top 3 winners would receive cryptocurrency as their reward. The activation serves one of the UFC’s biggest sponsors in Crypto.com while finding another way to pay fighters.
Crypto.com is also selling UFC NFTs.
Also, Trojan Condoms renewed and expanded its sponsorship with the UFC adding inventory to the broadcasts with a “wrapping station” while including the company’s catch phrase.
Crypto.com, Toyo Tires, Howler Head, Modelo, DraftKings.com, Manscaped, music artist Real Hasta Da Muerte, Monster Energy & Sheetz, the movie The Northman, Easypost, and Monster Energy had the center of the Octagon.
Looking at the UFC broadcast, a lot more in terms of inventory spots. As an example, Trojan Condoms had the fighter prep point. Icon Meals sponsoring the tweets from fans/media that flash across the screen during fights, Proper Twelve sponsored the corner cams. Modelo was the presenting sponsor of the co-main event.
Icon Meals also sponsored some of the social media posts promoting UFC 263.
Odds and ends
Tony Khan, Jim Ross and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were some of those spotted in the crowd and featured on the broadcast.
Post-event Dana White listed several cities that the promotion is looking at to hold events in the future. The list includes, Boston, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Toronto.
The 2016 fight between Cub Swanson and Dooho Choi will be admitted in to the UFC Hall of Fame class.
Mike Malott earned a first-round TKO of Mikey Gall on the UFC 273 Prelims. However, he did not receive a Performance Bonus. But, in his post-fight interview in the Octagon said he was donating his $10K Show Money to his coach as his daughter is diagnosed with Stage 3 lymphoma. He noted that fans in the stands started handing him money in support. Dana White also told Malott to hold onto his show purse as White donated $10,000 to the cause.
Conclusion
Hard to call how many PPV buys this event could have done. There was a lot of boxing on during the same time as the PPV which may have taken away some of the most casual of UFC fans. Still, the company’s position within ESPN and its digital platform makes it more likely that casual viewers of the company would be willing to watch the event. Something in the neighborhood of 400,000 PPV buys seems right.
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