Welcome to another episode of Payout Perspective. This time we are taking a look at UFC 311 taking place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
Merab outlasts Nurmogomedov
Merab Dvalishvili earned a unanimous decision victory over Umar Nurmogomedov in their five round battle. The story of the fight was Dvalishvili’s out of this world cardio that outlasted Nurmogomedov. It was the challenger that looked fresh in the first two round of the fight but Merab did not look too concerned. Obviously, the champion knew something that we did not. He turned up the pressure in rounds 3-5 and took down Nurmogomedov at will, and let him back up so that he could do it again in a showing of dominance.
Makhachev subs late-entry Moicano
Arman Tsarukyan was a late scratch so Renato Moicano stepped up to face Islam Makhachev. At least Moicano received a bump in pay because this fight was not competitive. Essentially Tsarukyan took Moicano down in round 1 and locked on the D’arce choke and it was over.
The event drew 18,370 for a gate of $10.2 million according to the post-fight presser.
The bonuses went to Jailton Almeida and Jiri Prochazka with Merab and Umar taking the Fight of the Night. All received $50,000.
California is one of the only states where it still discloses fighter pay. There were at least 12 fighters that made 6 figures for the night not including announced bonuses or compliance pay.
Compliance Pay
| Fighter | Compliance Pay | Fighter | Compliance Pay |
| Islam Makhachev | $42,000 – champion (17) | Renato Moicano | $32,000 (12) – title challenger |
| Merab Dvalishvili | $42,000 – champion (14) | Umar Nurmogomedov | $32,000 (6) – title challenger |
| Jamahal Hill* | $6,000 (10) | Jiri Prochazka | $6,000 (7) |
| Kevin Holland | $21,000 (24) | Reiner de Ridder | $4,500 (2) |
| Billy Elakana | $4,500 (1) | Bogdan Guskov | $4,500 (4) |
| Raoni Barcelos | $11,000 (12) | Payton Talbott* | $4,500 (4) |
| Jailton Almeida* | $6,000 (8) | Serghei Spivac | $11,000 (13) |
| Sedriques Dumas* | $6,000 (6) | Zach Reese* | $4,500 (4) |
| Grant Dawson* | $11,000 (13) | Diego Ferreira | $16,000 (16) |
| Allin Perez | $6,000 (6) | Karol Rosa | $6,000 (10) |
| Muin Gaforov | $4,500 (4) | Rinya Nakamura** | $4,500 (4) |
| Bernard Sopaj | $4,500 (2) | Ricky Turcios* | $6,000 (6) |
| Clayton Carpenter* | $4,500 (3) | Tagir Ulanbekov | $6,000 ( |
Ratings
The UFC 311 Prelims aired on FX due to conflicts with college basketball on the ESPN Networks and received an average of 411,000 viewers per Programming Insider.
Sponsorships
The big news during fight week was the announcement that the UFC has signed Verizon Wireless’ Total Wireless brand was the latest UFC sponsor. It becomes the Official Wireless Provider of the UFC.
The Octagon included Bud Light, Crypto.com, Slate, Prime, QuikTrip, Morgan&Morgan, #DraftKings, Stake, New Amsterdam Vodka, VeBetter/VeChain, ToyoTires, True Classic, StemCells CPI, Total Wireless, Black Rifle Coffee Company, Budweiser, Aviator, 19 Crimes and Monster Energy in the center
The UFC also had an #LAStrong sign in the Octagon which was similar to the Vegas Strong signage the company has had in the Octagon.
Odds and ends:
Merab Dvalishvili made his first title defense of the UFC Bantamweight title against Umar Nurmogomedov.
Bad night for Beneil Dariush as he was benched by the company. Coming off of two losses, he was bypassed by the UFC in favor of Moicano who was on a fight win streak.
There were 8 DWCS alumni and Rinya Nakamura had to fights on the Road to UFC series.
Interesting that Reiner de Ridder is on the PPV having just 2 fights in the UFC. He faces vet Kevin Holland with 24 fights.
Notably there was one UFC fighter making his debut – Billy Elakana who lost to Bogdan Guskov. The veteran of the card was Kevin Holland with his 24th appearance. Unfortunately for Holland, his loss to Reiner de Ridder may have sealed his fate (lost 4 out of 5 last fights). Making $250K per fight, Holland may not get his wish of six fights in a year.
Interesting to see on the Embedded episode that de Ridder shopping for Timberlands to wear for the press conference but wore Travis Scott’s into the store.
Upset of the night: Raoni Barcelos defeated promising upstart Payton Talbott.
Jiri Prochazka shaved his head in honor of fan Ashly McGarity as she battles cervical cancer. She was on stage at the ceremonial weigh-ins with Prochazka.
The UFC announced its first member of this year’s Hall of Fame class. It went to Craig Piligian who helped shape the first The Ultimate Fighter. He will go into the contributor wing of the Hall of Fame.
Conclusion:
It looks like the UFC found another anchor arena to return to as the Intuit Dome provided a lot more than most visiting arenas. The pyro techniques and graphics for the UFC added to the event. I would think buys for this PPV is up due to the fact that fans have been conditioned to watch events and the lack of cards due to holidays made people hungry to see UFC action. Even with the last minute change on the card, I would think that this event drew about 400K buys.
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