If Francis makes a crap ton in a match vs Fury (as an example) then why come back to the UFC at all? Dana said they will never bring Francis back. What that really means is that Francis needs to bring his demands down to a realistic # and then the UFC will talk. However, if Francis were to make a crap load in a boxing match, then is it likely that his asking amount would go down?

It seems the better path to get him back in the UFC would be for Francis to not get a big money boxing match and then he could come down to what the UFC is offering him. My understanding though is that he was asking for some crazy crap like healthcare for all UFC fighters, and if he wants to stick to those sort of principals, a deal will simply never be made.

My feeling is that he will make decent money for one big fight in boxing, but then (assuming he loses) his stock falls a fair bit - esp if people now think Jones is the best MMA heavyweight. Could be wrong though, who the hell knows, but he does seem to have a lot of pride and there have been a few digs at Jones (re not being the real champ).

Personally, I'd not take anything Dana says at face value. Didn't he once say that women would never fight in the UFC? And he clearly hated Tito yet they could still work together. You're probably right about Francis wanting too much but I really hope he comes back somehow.

I really don't see why healthcare is considered 'crazy'. These guys get paid peanuts (compared to boxing) for putting their bodies on the line. They're contracted to fight for the UFC and basically have very little input with the matchmaking / purse process (unless they're a top draw).

I get it....Dana / UFC don't want to dig into their pockets. In reality, how much would a medical plan for all the fighters cost? When an organisation is taking in over $1bn in revenue a year, it would make commercial sense to throw $20M or more at ensuring their fighters are in good medical shape so they can show up to fights.

Universal healthcare for fighters is not crazy. A single fighter demanding it in a contract negotiation is crazy.

It’s good PR for sure, Francis said he had zero expectations of that happening.

1. Jon Jones can beat Stipe and leave Francis, the HW division, et all with their ****s in their hand.

2. Isn’t Fury considered one of the GOATs in HW boxing…still in his prime. In what world is he fighting someone with 0 boxing fights? It’s not the same as Mcgregor fighting 43 year old twice retired Floyd Mayweather. It’s not going to make that much more money than his other fights. Didn’t Ngannou/Fury only do 300k?

-RS

Not that it matters too much but Mayweather was 40 when he fought McGregor.

Tyson Fury fought a total of 9 times over the last 5 years (after a 3 year hiatus after beating Klitschko). Outside the 3 fights against Wilder, he fought Dillian Whyte, a washed up Derek Chisora (for the 3rd time) and a couple guys who had absolutely no business being in the ring with him. Except for Usyk and Joshua, two fights that would come with significant risk, Francis Ngannou is probably the biggest name he could face right now. With pretty negligible risk.

In case "Ngannou/Fury" refers to Paul vs. (Tommy) Fury, that one apparently sold 200k PPVs. Way less than they had claimed before the fight, still pretty impressive considering that both are professional celebrities. Fury made $2mil for that one + 1/3 PPV share.

We might never find out how much money the UFC really offered Ngannou but we know the "highest paid heavyweight of all time" thing strictly referred to the total size of the 8 fight contract. Brock Lesnar made "only" $400k for UFC 100 but PPV points got him to at least 3mil plus sponsorship money which was a real thing back then.

No, not that it's relevant.


In the world we live in right now, the age of social media. It's super normal.


You're right. Floyd fighting McGregor was way crazier. That sort of freak-show boxing match was pretty unheard of at the time. And it sold HUGE PPVs, which really opened the door for more of these freak-show matchups. McGregor was under UFC contract, seemingly making such a boxing match an impossibility at the time. Ngannou is completely free of any contract or obligation. Plus, the Mayweather line should have been at least -4000. Odds of McGregor winning were certainly less than odds of Ngannou beating Fury.

You are correct that Ngannou has never put many butts in the seats and its likely such a match wouldn't do as well as he thinks and he likely wouldn't get paid what he thinks he should get paid.

Imo Ngannou is a massive dog in getting a Tyson Fury fight…not happening


My point about Mayweather was he was clearly done with ever fighting top ranked boxers…Tyson is still active.

It's being reported that Paul vs Fury did 775k+ ppv buys worldwide. I believe the Anderson Silva match did 200k+ ppv buys.

Paul vs Fury doing 775k PPV makes me think maybe Francis can get his meme boxing fight done. I've been thinking hes a favorite to come back to the UFC in the next 2 years, maybe not.

That's the number they report which includes people like me who paid $0.99 to sub to the channel for a month and probably others who already had subs to those channels and tuned in.

Not sure how credible this source is but 200k in the US sounds realistic to me:
https://www.mmanews.com/2023/03/jake...buys-estimate/

Probably did similar numbers in the UK where it was priced at 20 bucks.

Still pretty impressive numbers though. OTOH, if there was a Kylie Jenner vs. Charli D'Amelio doing whatever PPV they might sell a million+.

I would trust Meltzer's # of 200k over the other news outlets.

I don't view 200k as a very good #. Then again, 10 years ago we thought the PPV model would be all but extinct by now. It's kind of insane that it's not.

The Machine vs No Mercy

probably as good as a fight night main event gets


edit: why did dream crusher get banned?....lol now this thread really gonna be dead

Gaethje fight was really good, pretty much a very entertaining fight.

Thought Edwards-Usman should have been a draw and then to run it back one more time.

What round other than 3 did you score for Usman?

Wasn't impressed with the action last night and don't have to see a third one. At least it was better than the last one I guess?

Game plan Usman: don't get kicked in the head.
Game plan Edwards: don't get taken down. Also because he's going to prevent the head kick, just kick to the body/legs all night.

One of those two plans was solid.

Gaethje - Fiziev started way slower than I had expected but eventually turned into the barn burner everyone came to see. Would have been awesome if that was a 5 round fight even though they might have stopped it after R3 anyway. I thought 29-28 either way would have been fine. One judge gave Gaethje 1 and 3, another one 2 and 3 and the last one had 1/2 Fiziev and a 10-8 in round three. Don't agree with the latter.

I'm kind of blurring R4/5 together but my reaction in the moment was Usman took one of those rounds, and won R3 by 10-8. Thought it was laughable that one judge called it 9-9 in round 3.

Yeah i had it Rounds 1,2,5 Edwards, Round 3 10-8 Usman and round 4 10-9 Usman, so a draw.

Disclaimer: I was drunk

Nit: That was the third one

Totally right. I actually had it as "another" but changed it during my 4-5 edits within the 5min graze period where the edit doesn't show

I can see round 4 being a 10-9 Usman. Might also be one of the fights where I'd judge differently without volume. There was so little impact on the vast majority of the strikes, but with the crowd going crazy every time Edwards barely touched Usman and Anik starting to scream on any hit..

It's not like the fight was Nganou - Lewis 1 bad and it's hard to blame anyone if they focus on taking away the other guys strengths. It just doesn't make for a very entertaining fight. At least they had a decent amount of strikes this time compared to their last fight. That said, total strike numbers over 5 rounds were on par with Gaethje - Fiziev over 3.

I thought it was a draw as well, one of 2 or 4 could've gone to Usman. Along with 3. But to be fair, I don't think he definitively won any single round. A few of them were very tough to score, Edwards won rd 1 but basically nothing happened. Thought edwards clearly won rd 5

How does Colby just march into a title shot? Lol UFC, even edwards was like wtf but I'd think once he comes to his senses he'll realize he's got a nice little pathway of big money fights coming his way now. Colby and even Masvidal/Connor if they can put together just 1 win.

Pretty ridiculous but Dana already said that's the fight and it's not like Edwards has any say in that.

FWIW, Covington opened at -190 for that fight but the line already moved significantly closer. Still pretty sure Edwards is going to be an underdog in that one, too.

Just realized that not only is Chito Vera fighting this Saturday on ESPN, he's a +125 dog too. Exciting stuff.

DraftKings has it Edwards -120/Colby +100 currently.

No idea how anyone who isn't training with Colby can even tell how good/bad he is these days?

Since he beat RDA 5 years ago, his wins are over past-prime Lawler, washed-up Woodley and Masvidal.

OTOH, Masvidal is one or two wins away from a title fight with his last wins coming in 2019 when he beat Askren, Till and Nate Diaz..

I agree he hasn't done anything to earn his 2nd and seemingly 3rd title shots, but I do think we have a pretty good idea how good he is based on the fact he went 10 rds with Usman, got KO'd in the first fight at the end but the 2nd fight he probably won 2 of the last 3 rds after dropping the first 2. And that's the best in the division.

Woodley win is meaningless but he did dominate Masvidal in a way no one really has.


Isn't the UFC ESPN deal up soon? Might explain why they finally got Bones/McGregor back, Colby/Masvidal being pushed.....They want some nice buyrates coming I'm sure.

I'm not sure who is still paying for PPVs besides people having gatherings to watch the fights but it seems a lot harder to get PPV info since UFC is ESPN+. You used to be able to get it easily.