Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. In this edition we take a look at the return of Conor McGregor at UFC 329 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
McGregor return falls flat
It was the return many UFC and MMA fans awaited. Despite his out of the Octagon problems, most MMA fans wanted to see what McGregor had left.
Apparently not much. After a spinning jump kick, he landed badly on his right knee and that was it. All of the hype ended abruptly and the McGregor mystique was over. Five years of waiting to see what kind of return he would have ended in an inauspicious ending.
Holloway ended up the real winner for the night. Not only did he receive (likely) the second-highest purse of the night beside McGregor (and a finish bonus), he sustained no damage and can likely lobby for another fight before year-end. Look for Holloway to explore his options at lightweight although he may dip his toe into the welterweight pool.
Paddy submits BSD
Paddy Pimblett returned to the Octagon after his first loss in his UFC career to submit Benoit Saint Denis. Pimblett scored a submission victory in the very first round with a darce/peruvian necktie.
Paddy called it the “Pad Tie”
With the win Pimblett may get the next title shot at Justin Gaethje or what would seem like a big money showdown with Max Holloway.
Attendance and Gate
Perhaps the last time we see the “McGregor Effect” for UFC events as UFC 329 broke the gate record for UFC events in the state of Nevada surpassing UFC 306 (held at the Sphere). The event set a gate record of $26.4 million at T-Mobile. This surpasses the UFC Sphere show (aka UFC 306) which raked in a $22 million gate.
Bonuses
The Performance Bonuses went to Pimblett and King Green. Green stopped Terrance McKinney in the first round of their main card matchup. Each received $100K.
The Fight of the Night went to Lone’er Kavanaugh and Brandon Royval. It was Royval who ended stopping Kavanaugh but bother went home with $100K.
The $25K stoppage bonuses went to Holloway, Gable Stevenson, Adrian Yanez, Robert Whittaker, Luke Riley, Damian Pinas, Ryan Gandra and Alessandro Costa.
Compliance Pay
| Max Holloway | $21,000 | Conor McGregor | $11,000 |
| Benoit Saint Denis | $11,000 | Paddy Pimblett | $6,000 |
| Cory Sandhagen | $16,000 | Mario Bautista | $11,000 |
| Brandon Royval | $11,000 | Lone’er Kavanagh | $4,500 |
| King Green | $21,000 | Terrence McKinney | $11,000 |
| Robert Whittaker | $21,000 | Nikita Krylov | $21,000 |
| Gable Steveson | $4,000 | Elisha Ellison | $4,000 |
| Adrian Yanez | $11,000 | Cody Garbrandt | $16,000 |
| Luke Riley | $4,500 | Kai Kamaka | $6,000 |
| Tracy Cortez | $6,000 | Wang Cong | $6,000 |
| Damian Pinas | $4,000 | Cesar Almeida | $6,000 |
| Farid Basharat | $6,000 | John Garza | $4,000 |
| Ryan Gandra | $4,000 | Zach Reese | $6,000 |
| Alessandro Costa | $6,000 | Cody Durden | $16,000 |
Sponsors
The Octagon was full of sponsors including Ninja Trader, Superfile, SuperShure, FRE, VeChain, Exodus (Official Payments Partner), Crypto.com, Polymarket, Toyo Tires, Bud Light, Black Rifle Coffee Company, Budweiser, Ram Truck, Total Wireless, Cuervo and Monster Energy in the center with Casey’s under Monster.
The Embedded episodes were sponsored by DoorDash.
Odds and ends
It looks like McGregor has lost his aura.
It was International Fight Week and the company held its usual ancillary events around UFC 329. Maybe receiving more attention this time around was the PowerSlap event held the night before UFC 329 as former AEW/WWE wrestler Jake Hager was knocked out as he competed for the first time in this event.
The upstart amateur wrestling promotion, Real American Freestyle held an event on Saturday afternoon so as not to conflict with UFC.
Sophie Cunningham served a cameo as a ring girl. Dana White has worn her shirt/jersey during media appearances and its clear she is going places after her time with the Fever is up. She apparently is a conservative, tall and blonde, she could debut on Fox with her own show if she wanted.
The Hall of Fame inducted its new entrants this year including Demetrious Johnson, Chris Weidman, Dominick Cruz, Thomas Gerbasi and Alex Pereira won the Forrest Griffin community service award.
Dana White was upset with his production team for confusing Shakur Stevenson with Jalen Williams. Zuffa Boxing signed Stevenson and one can imagine White’s anger when he saw that the on-screen graphic labeled him as Jalen Williams, a forward for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
CBS ran an hour long feature on McGregor on Friday night. More evidence that the company believed McGregor is still a top draw.
Conclusion
We don’t do PPV buy estimates any more but you can believe that this card will be one of the most watched of this year due to the presence of McGregor. That said, he lost a lot of aura with the loss on Saturday. Despite claiming his knee was fine prior to the fight, it brings into question his health. He broke his leg in the Dustin Poirier fight and now hurts his other leg against Holloway. Notwithstanding a short fight against an aged Donald Cerrone McGregor hasn’t had a quality fight in the 2000s. You would have to look back to his win over Eddie Alvarez in November 2016 (TEN YEARS AGO) to find a time where McGregor looked crisp in the Octagon. In several years, we’ll see documentaries on the cautionary tale of McGregor.
Leave a Reply