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Agree completely. I've never been a fan of that POS dan because he literally looks to kill someone when there already stiff. I get that the ref is there to prevent these occurrences but what hendo does is ****ty and the bisping fight isn't the only time he's done this.

Hendo title shot make sense because bisping is champion , the hype and money it will make due to their history.
But it does not make sense if you take into account the best fighters in the division and we are talking about a title shot.

So what is the UFC?
A good mma show that wants to make money or a league that dictate whos best fighter in the world ?

I think they can do both has long they would keep the title shot out of the hype game imo but let the big fights ,that people want to see , happening (cornor & diaz is an example).

So i think letting Conor fight diaz to make money ( for the UFC) and letting the fans what they want to see is fine while letting Hendo fight Bisping is bad because it is a title shot.

If people really want to see Bisping vs Hendo, let the fight happen without the title shot ...

Why would the title holder needs to fight everytime for the belt ?
Just make the fighters have to defends the belt 2 or 3 times a year and if he would like to fight more often other fighters to make more money without having the belt in play let them ?
(Cerone has a champion would be one of those, he just cannot fight only 2 or 3 times a year ..)

You can create more superfights with catchweight or w.e.

Imo fan show and competition show can both be happening.

Just need a new approach to it

I think the first drawing board iteration of the UFC the Gracies drew up had the cage suspended over a tank of sharks and alligators.

So 4B is a bad move by the new buyers right?

Feels like there could be more comp in the future, co-promotion with main stars as they can become bigger names with social media/MMA being in the mainstream, concussion issues, etc

PPV dying as WWE got out infront of, which is harder for the UFC to do since it is a bigger % of their overall revenue.

Definitely feels like a great move by the Fertittas.

hard to say PPV is dying when they've cracked 800k buys multiple times in the last year...

yeah, it is all about getting big stars for PPV's. Rousey and McGregor provide that. You can definitely have some lulls where you have no one like that though.

http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/pay-per-view/

Cool chart of every PPV buy # ever. Not sure how accurate it is but the #'s seem legit and most are what I recall being reported at the time.

LOL mighty mouses 4 PPV main events combined = 560,000 buys

Rousey vs..... Zingano...

In comparison GSP officially headlining 12 PPV main events combined



Lesnar also in beast PPV mode with officially 6 PPV Main Events + UFC 200

I was surprised how bad DC's 2 post-Jones fights were.

Some of the #'s that look a little crazy (Silva/Weidman 2 getting 1M seemed strong to me) you have to check the undercard. It had Rousey/Tate.

Cain/JDS 2 had 590k buys and 3 only had 310k buys. HW been pretty dead set Brock Era ended.

Conor/Diaz did 1.5M as well, was UFC 198. Not on the list.

The Conor/Rousey's of the world I just think are getting way better at promoting themselves, can go on any show now, social media, youtube views, etc...There may be a time in the near future they don't need the UFC as much as the UFC needs them but that would take some competition. Wonder if the space could be big enough for 2 companies. Would need some deep pockets willing to take some losses at first.


Obviously it varies because of gate but I wonder if there is a ballpark breakeven point on PPV sales to make $.

Yeah. I think it would be ideal if Lesnar fought someone in the top 5 before getting a title shot.

Only2days, the problem is that the next Conor or Ronda can't become bigger than the UFC without starting in the UFC.

Lesnar is probably the only one who made his star outside the UFC, and he's a pretty unique case. (At least for guys with real talent - not counting sideshows like kimbo)

http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/7/10...-next-possibly

UFC is very clear which they prefer between popular and fair.

Yeah but if you got someone like Conor (maybe even Conor) getting 1.5M PPV buys after 1.5M PPV buys, can you continually pay him a small % of the overall take? I suppose you can until a competitor or better avenue for him comes along but I wouldn't bet on it. Lot of deep pockets out there and with MMA being in the mainstream he can promote a card on his own with the right backing.

When Floyd is getting 70-80 per fight, I'm just not sure how much longer you can pay the true UFC stars what they are being paid.

Of course very few reach that level. Only 3 in UFC history really. Brock/Conor/Rousey. Liddell was starting to get really big right as Rampage beat him and then he begun to fade.

Tough sport to continually dominate which makes no one bigger than the UFC brand itself, which makes what I am saying difficult. But doesn't mean it can't happen.

Floyd makes 70M for a few reasons

• He owns his own promotion company, so he doesn't have to give UFC/Bellator/etc a cut. He's both the fighter AND the promoter, and therefore makes more since he takes more risk.
• He's a bigger draw than anyone in UFC ever has been. His numbers are well beyond even Brock/Conor/Ronda.
• He doesn't have to pay the rest of the card as well as the UFC does. UFC doing a big event like UFC100 or 200 has multiple championship fights, tons of high level top ten guys and former champions. Floyd doesn't need a wellpaid undercard.
• He also doesn't have to pay for all the administrative overhead of running a massive 35-card-a-year organization like the UFC does.

I think Brock's next fight (and I'm assuming there will be a next fight with the potential money in play) will be against either Ben Rothwell or Andrei Arlovski.

They're ranked #5 and #6 in the UFC HW rankings, so both can be sold as legit fights. Both are very winnable fights for Brock, neither has particularly great athleticism or TDD. JDS, Cain and Overeem are all very likely to murder Brock.

Brock wins one more fight and BAM he now has two top ten wins in a row. Title shot? Title shot! UFC makes all the money. I suspect they won't give Lesnar the title shot right away, but rather try to keep the ride going for one more win. After Brock loses he's probably gone, and more Brock fights is better for the bottom line.

Rothwell/Arlovski both have fights lined up in september, so if either wins I can see a December-ish fight against Brock happening.

brock's contract only had a one time fight clause (ie, wwe definitely wouldn't have allowed if it wasn't in his contract) in it and technically he's signed through mania so any fight is unlikely till after that but there was a rumor out there he might be able to get out of it after SS. That contract has to be ridiculous in length/language/specifics.

floyd's only the big draw cause old people still watch boxing and have all the money. The bazillion dollars for PPV model won't fly with the younger crowd.

My "lol, no" was in reference to you saying that giving Brock a title shot is as bad as giving Hendo one ainec.

Brock has a legit shot of beating almost anyone in the division except maybe Werdum who's a nightmare for Brock but he's looked like **** as of late.

Hendo has little shot at beating anyone in the top ten...


I think Brock should get a title shot because he sells, he's competitive with the top of the division and because he can just tell the UFc he isn't fighting unless he gets a title shot and they have to give it to him. There is no negotiating that.

I'm not saying Rousey or McGregor or whoever can just replicate what Floyd does. But there is a big gap between the 70m he makes a fight and the 5m they make (or whatever it is) Yeah 100 and 200 had stacked cards, but most cards don't have more than 1 other fight that a casual fan even knows who the undercard fighters are. I don't think building an undercard is the hard part.

The numbers McGregor has putup are pretty staggering if they're true. 800k vs Mendes in his 1st main event, 1.2 vs Aldo, 1.5 vs Diaz. Maybe he loses to Diaz again and he isn't that guy. With MMA, it is tough for someone to have everything working in their favor and being a megastar for any sustained period. I'm just saying if you get a megastar in his prime then he probably has a little more leverage than people think.

This isn't the NBA or NFL where we know what league the guys are going to play in, or WWE where creative direction, characters and the brand are what matters. This is two guys fighting inside a cage. What if a guy comes along that can do 1M w/o UFC? I think it could potentially be disruptive. A lot of deep pockets could step in and help the fighter as well.

Yeah, I don't see the PPV model working for the younger generation. Especially in an internet streaming world. Unless there is some new anti-piracy technology on the horizon, that is just going to spread more and more. Not to mention people under 30 just aren't conditioned to pay a premium for stuff like that.

I also am still not sold on women's MMA being commercially viable long-term. No other women's sports really are besides tennis and even that isn't on PPV.

Rousey was interesting because it was novel and she smashed everyone, but if it is like any other division I could see interest fading fast.

The difference of being a legend in poker and MMA that in the latter you actually have to be top level.

Btw. Who would ever buy a ticket at an UFC event? Cant see anything.

The fighters unionizing is only a matter of time. UFC makes so much money because they pay the non-superstars like ****.

Joanne Calderwood was upset that she didn't win fight/KO of the night because it meant she had to go back to work and save up money so she could afford to have a full camp again lol

If this is true it makes me sick and i am glad new owner's came in and hope they will treat their "employes" better...

http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/6/20...t-bonus-joanne

Big names like McGregor make bank because they get a cut of the PPV shares on top of their base salary. And thus lies the problem- the superstars don't care about unionizing because they are currently making a ton of money. But in order to properly unionize and get a favorable CBA, the fighters need the leverage of having the superstars on their side.

certainly Robert Kraft et al will treat the employees better