Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 291 which took place in Salt Lake City, Utah. The main event featured a matchup for the self-indulgent BMF Title.
Gaethje’s head kick takes out Poirier
In a top shelf matchup between two of the most popular and entertaining fighters in the 155 division, Justin Gaethje stopped Dustin Poirier in the second round of the main event. Gaethje set up a head kick which stopped Poirier in his tracks. As a result, Gaethje won the mythical ‘BMF’ title although his real sites are on the lightweight title and the winner of Makhachev-Oliveira in October. For Poirier, he still in his window to get back to a title although a side trip to the welterweight division to fight Colby Covington could be an entertaining matchup.
Pereira tops Blachowich in LHW co-main
Former middleweight champion Alex Pereira won a split decision over former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowich. For those that were watching both the Terrence Crawford and Errol Spence fight and UFC 291, the co-main event may have had fewer viewers as Crawford-Spence started at this time.
The Salt Lake City crowd came out once again for the UFC as it was a sellout garnering 18,467 fans for a gate of over $6.5M. It seems like Utah will be an annual stop for the UFC.
Bonuses
There were four bonuses awarded by the UFC including Gaethje, Kevin Holland for his submission of Michael Chiesa, Bobby Green for his submission of Tony Ferguson and Derrick Lewis for his KO and subsequent undressing in front of the adoring crowd. All received $50K bonuses.
Hopefully Gabriel Bonfim was taken care of for his prelim guillotine of Trevor Giles.
Similar to UFC 290, the prelims for 291 aired on ABC and ESPN at the same time. The combination of the two almost drew 2 million viewers. The early prelims on ESPN drew 533,000 viewers.
Sponsorships
Icon Meals, VeChain, Howler Head, Kudo Protein Popcorn, Toyo Tires, Easypost, Crypto.com, Prime, Monster/Circle K, Monaco Cocktails, Jimmy Johns, Air National Guard, Jose Cuervo, DraftKings, Manscaped, Modelo, EasyChain, New Amsterdam Vodka, Innovation Refunds and Monster Energy in the center.
Also, it was announced during fight week that the UFC partnered with Roobet.fun to become the official social casino partner of the UFC.
Odds and Ends
Perhaps the biggest story coming out of UFC 291 outside of the Octagon was Stephen Thompson turning down his fight with Michael Pereira because the Brazilian did not make weight. Even though the sides attempted to negotiate a deal, Thompson turned it down. The UFC, according to Thompson, did not compensate Thompson for his show money. In an interview with Ariel Helwani on Monday, Thompson said he expected that the UFC would “do right by him” and is just waiting for Dana White to get back from vacation.
— “Wonderboy” Thompson (@WonderboyMMA) July 28, 2023
The fact that the UFC could not just ok, Thompson’s show money without having to wait for Dana is of a concern. It goes without saying that the company makes money hand over fist and Thompson is a ‘company man’ yet the issue remains that Thompson made a decision for his career and the decision not to automatically pay him for making weight did not happen.
Dana White was on vacation in Italy so he was not in attendance.
A lot of UFC fighters made it to Salt Lake City to watch the fights.
The Terrence Crawford-Errol Spence fight may overshadow UFC 291 on Saturday. There was a lot of buzz for the matchup between two of the top fighters in the sport and it felt like this was one of those nights where boxing takes over. Still, the UFC has a built in audience.
Add Utah to the list of places that no longer discloses fight purses. In my opinion, this is a bad decision. You do not see NBA, NHL, NFL or Major League Baseball shy away from disclosing pay for the fighters. In a sport known for its sleaze and unsavory people, the ability to NOT disclose how much a fighter is making goes against what the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was about.
This is the confidentiality and non disclosure agreement of the Utah Commission. This is the correct attitude in regards to athletes financial information. The Athlete has the right to disclose or not, his personal information. All commissions should follow Utah in regards to… pic.twitter.com/owq7J4aaOu
— Alex Davis (@Alexdavismma) July 28, 2023
Conclusion
This was a huge event and Salt Lake City came out to support it. With boxing’s biggest event of the year going on at the same time, the casual fight fan consumer had a choice to make. Crawford-Spence seemed like the more interesting matchup whereas UFC has PPV every month. Still, the UFC has a built in audience conditioned to watch it no matter what and Crawford-Spence appeals to more of the serious boxing fan. If disclosed, the PPV buy rate would probably be around 400,000 for this event which would be a great number.
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