I said "Smeshed", which is basically "Held down and beaten by Khabib while you look up at the ref for help".

I don't see this going to a decision unless it's 50-45 Khabib, and if it's going that way knowing Conor's gas tank, I see Khabib just taking his arm and ending it. If Khabib fails to get Conor down and pummel him, he's getting lit up on the feet and finished.

Schaub has said on his pod that the WME group that bought for 4B did so with basing a lot of the purchase on '15-16 #'s and that internally they regret it. Take that for what it is worth.

Tough to gauge television ratings as a sign of decline either since TV ratings are down for almost everything.

Looks like Volkov vs Lewis is gonna co-main UFC 229. Feels pretty underwhelming but that may be due to how Lewis' last fight went.

They are not putting any expensive match-ups under Conor vs Khabib because it sells regardless of the undercard.

They don't want to guarantee anyone else a piece of the card and they want Conor to earn every cent.

If his defense was such a weakness , barboza would of kill him ...

Lot people here seem to think barboza is a weak striker when his one of the best of the division !

I hope lot of casual would bet on mcgregor like they did vs Floyd .
Lot of money to make again, thx .

I would rather see barboza vs mcgregor ...
I would take barboza because if the keg kick which he couldn’t use bad khabib .

I dont want to sound like im taking anything away from Barboza as I think hes a great fighter but I feel like his striking style causes less problems to a guy like Khabib than Conors potentially will.

Ferguson is cleared to train & he wants to fight. Who the hell is the UFC going to book him against? I wished they booked Poirier vs Ferg instead of Diaz, it's a better matchup and Diaz acting like a diva, he isn't that important.

Why is that ?
Barbozza has more weapons like leg kicks ?
And regardless, the difference is minimal, both being great striker and look how khabib disposed one of them.

Even Mendez was able tp bring mcgregor on the floor...
Did he KO nate ?
We know khabib can take a punch, we saw it.

26-0 is not easy to do.

I mean way too much factors in favor of khabib.

have him fight Lee again for #1 spot

TJ/Cody did 300k buys, not bad considering DC/Stipe did 380k and was a HW vs LHW superfight.

UFC probably needs to WWE-it up more, fights where fans feel the 2 guys legitimately don't like each other are what is going to sell going forward.

Disagree that the difference is minimal. Barboza's a feared striker because of his elite kicking attack and Conor is mostly a boxer. Khabib has relentless forward pressure. It basically took Barboza's high kicks out of the fight as he was constantly in his face. I think Barboza threw like 3 all fight. Khabib being in Barboza's face is the safest place he can be against him while standing but is the most dangerous place he can be against Conor.

So what if Mendes took him down, of course Khabib is going to be able to take him down. The question is whether he can get back up after getting taken down.

Im guessing the Diaz comment is mostly a troll so I wont bite.

I respect Khabib as a fighter, I respect the 26-0 but looking at the people he has fought im not blown away. As I have said before, this stylistically is as hard a matchup as there is for Conor but at the same time I feel like its easily the best fighter Khabib has ever fought. Im interested to see if Khabib can make that step up.

Nate was not a troll .
Point was he couldn’t ko him regardless how many time he hit Nate clean .
People talk like mcgregor hits like a train ( yes in the 145 division but 155 and vs khabib that could fight easy at 170 is another matter ) but couldn’t ko Nate and we know khabib can take a punch so all I’m saying is that for mcgregor to win , he must be able to hit khabib more than once .
That Aldo fluke won’t happen vs khabib .

Agree with your analysis with barboza .

As for Mendez , the guy is like 5 feet 6 and much weaker than khabib .
Mcgregor could not do **** vs him and neither vs Nate when he was on the ground as well .

For mcgregor to win , he will to be at his best while a regular performance by khabib should be enough to win .

Khabib Nurmagomedov has already been the best fighter in that division for years. If he puts his hands on McGregor, the round is over, possibly the fight. Conor's only chance is to do what he did to Jose Aldo.

Just think its kinda disingenuous to hold not KO'ing Nate against him, Nate has been stopped from strikes once in the UFC. The guy has zombie blood.

I disagree that a regular Khabib performance wins. Conor beats the Khabib that fought Al. Michael Johnson rocked Khabib and was almost landing at will for the first couple minutes of that fight. Even against Barboza he was rushing in recklessly swinging like a madman and I think that Conor would punish that.

As big as an edge Khabib has in grappling, Conor has an equal edge in striking and the fight starts standing.

Seems like the MMA bubble has deflated a bit. We're basically at boxing's level now: two or three 500k+ buy-selling stars, and not much else.

Hate the they have to go the WWE route, but I'm not sure what's left.

Yall are trippin if you think Conor can't sleep Khabib and I'm not sure Khabib is the best fighter in the division. I think Kevin Lee is probably better and a horrible matchup for Khabib.

I think the novelty is over and anyone who is into bros fighting in cages is in at this point, if you aren't in yet, you aren't getting in for the most part (besides the younger gen)

But I'd caution against using PPV #'s as the metric for that. Anyone can get an HD stream in 2 seconds in a way that I don't even think was available as easily just a year or two ago.

I agree streaming is eating a big chunk of their customers but there are two issues. First, I would argue that pirating hasn't gotten markedly easier in the past two years. Second, it's not necessarily fair to argue that a ton of those who are stealing it would but anyway. Some don't want to pay $60 to watch live but will if it's free.

I think the major problem is the PPV model. $60 is just too high. I know it's a subjective number, but I would probably buy every event if it was just $20. I've never streamed but I'm probably going to start trying that out.

I think it would be best for the future of the UFC if they were to try and get TV deals like the rest of the pro sports. Let the networks have a vested interest in promoting the fights and I think the casuals will come after seeing it on PTI/SC every day. The fights we get for free are OK but they aren't the headliners that will be bringing in the random fans. With the NFL softening up, the general population is craving violence and just needs easy access to see it.

Yeah, $60 is worse for MMA than boxing because many of the main event fights are over quickly. Last two PPV's had 1st rd KO's for main events. That's perfect for finding a quick stream.

I do think two guys get in a cage, fight, it's over in 1 to 25 minutes does fit the declining attention spans of the average young viewer very well. They should probably do what you said re: network TV. But they would have to cannibalize a lot of short-term profits to do so.

Not sure about the financial aspect of it, but assuming it's at or near profitable, moving PPVs to Fight Pass for an extra $10 or so is probably the wave of the future. WWE did that (granted their costs are entirely different) and ended 2017 increasingly profitable.

I think that model doesn't quite make as much sense for UFC as it did for WWE (although they may be forced to embrace it because lack of other options)

WWE gets 3mill people a week to watch both of their weekly shows and probably tons more watch it on some type of delay.

UFC on FS1 gets like 800k-1m-ish audience and this is for live sports. Doubt very many people are watching on delay at all.


So it seems as if their fan base is objectively much bigger.

Just not sure how big the audience is to buy a $10 a month all UFC all the time type package.

Then you have the PPV aspect. It was easier for WWE to cannibalize PPV w/ streaming because they didn't rely on PPV for as much of their revenue. I don't know the WWE PPV #'s but pretty sure they paled in comparison to UFC on avg.

Top 10 PPV buys for UFC:


10th-UFC 114: Rampage v. Evans 1.05M
1st-UFC 202: Ireland's Revenge 1.6M

Top 10 PPV buys for WWE:

10th- WM 25 960k
1st- WM 28 1.21M

UFC def has a leg up, but apparently not by as much as one might think.

I was thinking something like $10/mo with an extra $10 for a PPV or something. I don't think the WWE model of just throwing everything on there for $10/mo is doable, but maybe offering an upcharge could help out. Adding a steep discount for PPVs would almost certainly get more UFCFP subscribers.

That's wrestlemania though. I'd think the avg UFC PPV that does like 250-300k buys at $70 per is something WWE doesn't have (or wouldn't today if they were still on PPV model atleast)

WWE PPV's would probably be doing no more than 100k per right now if they kept that model. UFC is still doing significantly more than that.

It's a big leap for them. Innovator's dilemma type scenario.

$20 a month total? Dunno, feels like most probably just stream unless you are a hardcore. Think they need to try to get on free TV as much as possible to grow the audience.