Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 281 taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Alex Pereira wins middleweight crown
The left hook got Adesanya again. Despite winning the fight on the cards, Israel Adesanya succumbed to the punching power of the former kickboxer. And like he did in the kickboxing world, Pereira stopped Adesanya with a left hook which spelled the beginning of the end.
It would not be out of the question for there to be an immediate rematch as Adesanya dominated most of the fight before the finish.
Zhang Weili regains strawweight title
For many, this was not a surprise as Zhang regained the title from Carla Esparza. It was a little surprising that Esparza drew a negative reaction from most of the crowd during the weigh-ins and the fight. Zhang won via rear naked choke in the second round.
Poirier submits Chandler
It was no surprise that this was Fight of the Night. Perhaps surprising that Chandler allegedly fishhooked Poirier during a submission attempt in the second round. Poirier came back to win in the third round via rear naked choke.
Pre-Fight PR
With it being New York, the UFC did a lot over the course of Fight Week to drum up attention for the event. This included a face off at the top of the Empire State Building in New York.
Of course, we had the UFC Embedded series which was sponsored by DraftKings..
During the pre-fight press conference, someone asked about betting and Adesanya said he only uses Stake.com, a UFC sponsor. And I present to you my first clip using a quote out of context.
Me when they ask if I want chicken as the main course pic.twitter.com/Vii9NJ7evn
— Jason Cruz (@dilletaunt) November 10, 2022
Sponsorships
It was a big week for sponsorship announcements for the UFC. The week started off with Battle Motors announcing a renewal of its deal with the company and adding on Official Electric Commercial Truck of the UFC. Dustin Poirier’s Louisiana Style hot sauce brand was named the official Hot Sauce of the promotion and New Amsterdam became the first “official ready-to-drink vodka partner” for the company.
DAV.org, Jose Cuervo, Sweet Sweat, Easy Post, Draft Kings, Hospital for Special Surgery. Vechain, Toyo Tires, Howler Head, Crypto.com, New Amsterdam, Modelo, Manscaped, Battle Motors, the Paramount Original series, Tulsa King with Sylvester Stallone, the movie Violent Night, Monster and Casey’s shared a post, Real Hasta Da Muerte, Morgan and Morgan and Monster had the center of the Octagon.
Also, Body Armor was prominently featured through the broadcast.
Although we have not previously covered this, Morgan and Morgan is now the “Official Law Firm of the UFC.”
Attendance, gate and bonuses
The attendance was 20,845 with a gate of $11.56 million (5th highest grossing event for the UFC). It was the second highest grossing event for MSG with the UFC having the first one.
The bonuses went to Poirier-Chandler for FOTN and Peireira and Zhang with the Performance Bonuses. There were strong cases for others throughout the card to receive Performance Bonuses with several good stoppages.
Promotional Payouts
Adesanya and Esparza made the most out of the uniform payments with Pereira and Zhang coming up second as the challengers. Frankie Edgar and Dustin Poirier made the veteran maximums.
Alex Pereira: $32,000
def. Israel Adesanya: $42,000
Zhang Weili: $32,000
def. Carla Esparza: $42,000
Dustin Poirier: $21,000
def. Michael Chandler: $4,500
Chris Gutierrez: $6,000
def. Frankie Edgar: $21,000
Dan Hooker: $16,000
def. Claudio Puelles: $6,000
Renato Moicano: $11,000
def. Brad Riddell: $6,000
Ryan Spann: $6,000
def. Dominick Reyes: $6,000
Erin Blanchfield: $4,500
def. Molly McCann: $6,000
Andre Petroski: $4,500
def. Wellington Turman: $6,000
Matt Frevola: $6,000
def. Ottman Azaitar: $4,000
Karolina Kowalkiewicz: $11,000
def. Silvana Gomez Juarez: $4,500
Michael Trizano: $6,000
def. Seungwoo Choi: $6,000
Montel Jackson: $6,000
def. Julio Arce: $6,000
Carlos Ulberg: $4,500
def. Nicolae Negumereanu: $6,000
Odds and ends
UFC 281 saw the last fight of Frankie Edgar. Unfortunately, the ending did not go as one would hope, but he had a great career. Here’s the Embedded portion featuring Frankie.
There were at least two altercations at MSG. Kevin Holland and Jamahall Hill got into a scuffle inside the arena. Nate Diaz and DIllon Danis were involved in a scuffle outside of the venue and concluded when Diaz slapped someone with Danis.
There have been fighters that put on face paint for pre-fight ceremonial weigh-ins, but none more menacing than Periera.
Renato Moicano gave a sincere, expletive-laced post-fight Octagon interview with Joe Rogan after he defeated Brad Riddell. A lot of his cursing was caught on live television on ESPN.
The telecast for the Prelims aired on ESPN News due to college football.
There was confusion prior to the announcement of the results of the Karolina Kowalkiewicz-Silvana Gomez Juarez fight. The New York State Athletic Commission indicated that Kowalkiewicz was the winner but there was a tabulation error in the scores. Thus, the cite of an official appearing to be writing on the scorecard last minute. On the telecast, there was some concern of the lengthy delay.
The official statement from the NYSAC via MMA Junkie:
“The official result announced in the ring at the conclusion of the Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Silvana Gomez Juarez bout during UFC 281 was correct; Karolina Kowalkiewicz won by Unanimous Decision. The adjustment made just prior to Bruce Buffer’s announcement of the result corrected an initial transcription error made on the consolidated tally sheet. The New York State Athletic Commission staff quickly identified the error, and acted promptly to correct it before the final results were announced.”
Conclusion
This was one of the best fight cards of the year. With so much action throughout the card from early prelims until the main event, UFC 281 came through with action, drama and new champions. Does that transfer into a big PPV buy rate. I would think so. Without knowing any of the metrics, the PPV likely did in the 450-550K range. While its not the big 1M buys of yesteryear, that’s still a very good number and shows the drawing power of an Adesanya, Poirier and Chandler as well as the international appeal of Zhang.
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