Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. This time we take a look at UFC 308 which took place Saturday at the Ethiad Arena in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Topuria stops Holloway to retain FW crown
Ilia Topuria solidified himself at the top of the Featherweight division by stopping sure-fire Hall of Famer Max Holloway in their title matchup. The ending came in the third round of their title fight. Topuria’s power is not to be denied considering Holloway has never been stopped, yet the Spaniard put a beating on the former champion.
With the loss, Holloway may be facing the other side of his career. He is a certified Hall of Famer but the years of battles are taking a toll on his speed. A move to lightweight may be a bit ambitious for Topuria but the next in line for a shot would be Diego Lopes who is coming off a win over Brian Ortega.
Chimaev stakes claim to title shot
Khamzat Chimaev made a statement on Saturday when he ran through Robert Whittaker with a rear naked choke (although it looked like a face crank) which broke Whittaker’s chin. The tap came quickly which exemplified Chimaev’s strength.
Chimaev’s breakneck pace at the start of round 1 set the tone. It’s not clear if he could keep up the pace against Dricus du Plessis but it would be a fascinating fight to watch. If Dana White decides to forego Chimaev for a rematch with Sean Strickland, then Chimaev could look to Israel Adesanya for his next fight.
Bonuses
Announced bonuses went to Topuria, Chimaev, Shara Magomedov. Mateus Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai earned the Fight of the Night which Recki won.
Magomedov used an impressive double backfist to Armen Petrosyan in the second round to score the victory.
Sponsorships
On the mat were Manscaped, VeBetter.com, Anker, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, Anthem meat snacks, Crypto.com, Prime, Kick, blockasset.com, Keio, Monster Energy, Abu Dhabi Tourism Board, Citi Developers, True Classic, Kudo protein popcorn, QuikCheck and CFI. Monster Energy had the center of the Octagon.
Also a part of the program was Hart’s Tools and Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Odds and ends
Did Magomed Ankalaev solidify a title shot against Alex Pereira with his win over Alexsander Rakic?
Ex-PFL fighters went 1-2 (wins by Abus Magomedov and losses by Carlos Leal and Bruno Silva)
Dana White Contender Series vets went 4-3. Wins by Ibo Aslan, Farid Basharat, Kennedy Nzechukwu, and Geoff Neal. Losses by Armen Petrosyan, Dan Ige and Brunno Ferreira.
Since this was an Abu Dhabi card, there was not an announcement of attendance or gate.
The Nina Drama segments where she goes and trains with fighters is growing on me. Shara Magomedov seemed to not understand the segment by going a little too hard. It had me laugh.
Steve Harvey was in attendance at the event as he is doing a promotional campaign with Abu Dhabi. There was a commercial that ran during the prelims which featured Harvey.
PowerSlap took place two days before the PPV. Paige VanZant returned as a competitor but this time she battled to a no-contest.
Dana White made a dream come true for Tajikistani fighter Dorobshokh Nabotov as he asked White during the press conference to compete in the UFC. It looks like he is giving the fighter a shot as he is calling in a favor from the Korean Zombie. White is filming an episode of his “Looking for a Fight” series and he is doing one in Korea. He is going to have KZ put him on the former fighter’s fight card. We will see how he does.
Conclusion
The PPV took place midday in the United States which may hurt some of the PPV buys. With College Football and just an event going on a Saturday, the UFC would prefer to have its PPVs at night. Hence, the reason why we see Australian and UK cards held in the middle of the night in their respective time zones. Since, there is a special relationship with the middle east, that is not the case. But, I would think the novelty of a daytime card may not hurt the buys that much and would suspect something in the range of 300-325K PPV Buys on ESPN+.
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