Cris Cyborg feels Holly Holm and Cat Zingano missed out on their best chance to defeat her. Cyborg captured the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s featherweight title this past Saturday night (July 29). She earned a third-round TKO victory over Tonya Evinger. It was Cyborg’s first fight at 145 pounds in the UFC. Before the […]
Cris Cyborg feels Holly Holm and Cat Zingano missed out on their best chance to defeat her. Cyborg captured the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s featherweight title this past Saturday night (July 29). She earned a third-round TKO victory over Tonya Evinger. It was Cyborg’s first fight at 145 pounds in the UFC. Before the […]
To the bewilderment of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans and media members across the world, tomorrow’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) stacked UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, appears to be poised to go off without a hitch (fingers crossed), something that unfortunately hasn’t been the norm for a Jon Jones-headlined card in recent […]
To the bewilderment of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans and media members across the world, tomorrow’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) stacked UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, appears to be poised to go off without a hitch (fingers crossed), something that unfortunately hasn’t been the norm for a Jon Jones-headlined card in recent years.
The all-time great, who was only beaten by himself and his outside-of-the-cage problems with drugs, will have yet another attempt at a comeback when he meets archrival Daniel Cormier, the stalwart champion who has won four fights in “Bones’” absence but was still beaten by the troubled ex-champ, in the UFC 214 main event. The co-main event features a closely-matched welterweight title affair between power slugger Tyron Woodley and peerless grappling whiz Demian Maia, why consensus women’s No. 1 pound-for-pound star Cris Cyborg meets former Invicta champ Tonya Evinger for the women’s featherweight belt in the event’s third title fight.
The fighters weighed in according to California’s increasingly strict weigh-in standards this morning, the results of which can be seen here. Now, the fighters will square off in the final media event of the UFC 214 build-up when the ceremonial weigh-in begins shortly at 8:00 p.m. EST. Watch the video streaming live right here:
It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017. After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time […]
It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017.
After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time of downward-trending PPVs without flagship stars Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey anywhere close to the octagon.
True, McGregor will return to the ring against Floyd Mayweather, on August 26, but that could be hurting the UFC’s actual numbers more than helping them. We’ll get to that shortly.
Regardless, both the preliminary card television ratings and pay-per-view buyrates for July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas were recently revealed, and the numbers ultimately amounted to some of the most dismal overall viewership turnouts the UFC has ever seen. Now, women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes’ extremely late withdrawal from her championship bout versus Valentina Shevchenko most definitely caused the lack of buys, but the numbers are concerning nonetheless.
Things didn’t get better two weeks later when UFC on FOX 25 aired live from the Nassau Coliseum on July 22. Despite former middleweight champion Chris Weidman securing an emotional headlining win over Kelvin Gastelum in his hometown, the card had the lowest-ever ratings for a UFC on FOX event in overnight ratings, a number that rose to “only” the third-worst of all-time when the time slot spillover numbers for the main event were factored in.
That continued a disturbing decline for big FOX-aired cards in 2017, but those numbers are also simply indicative of the overall trend of the year, where pay-per-view rates have went down drastically in addition to TV-aired events and PPV prelim numbers.
There are several big underlying factors for this sharp and disturbing decline. On the eve of the biggest pay-per-view of the year, let’s take at the five most impactful.
Promoting Only McGregor & Rousey:
The UFC enjoyed their most lucrative two-year stretch in history from 2015-2016, a time when their biggest-ever crossover stars in Rousey and McGregor were winning big fights in dominant fashion. Rousey was being called the most dominant fighter in MMA, and McGregor won both the featherweight and lightweight titles while becoming the sport’s biggest star.
But that time period simply couldn’t be sustained, as Rousey infamously lost the belt to Holly Holm at UFC 193, following it up with another unsuccessful title fight in her 48-second loss to Nunes at 2016’s UFC 207, after which it appears Rousey may never fight in the UFC again.
McGregor is not gone; at least not in the same sense as Rousey. He’s obviously involved in his hyped-up boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, and while the UFC will obviously get a ton of attention and hype from that massive spectacle, it brings up one vital, overarching point – the UFC simply promoted only their top two stars in recent years, and while it clearly worked in that regard, it left them much too dependent on McGregor and Rousey for success, because their other fighters just aren’t bringing in any numbers at all.
If they ever want to get back to the level where they have their big draws and their mid-level stars; say in the time of dominant champions Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre where mid-level stars like Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson could still sell an in-between card for 350-400,000 buys, they’re going to have to diversify their promotional strategy.
Cat Zingano wants to throw down with Holly Holm next. “Alpha” hasn’t seen Octagon action since UFC 200 last summer when she suffered a unanimous decision loss to Julianna Pena. Prior to that, Zingano suffered her first career loss in mixed martial arts (MMA) when she was submitted by former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda […]
Cat Zingano wants to throw down with Holly Holm next.
“Alpha” hasn’t seen Octagon action since UFC 200 last summer when she suffered a unanimous decision loss to Julianna Pena. Prior to that, Zingano suffered her first career loss in mixed martial arts (MMA) when she was submitted by former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in just 14 seconds into the first round.
Holm just snapped a three-fight win streak, which began after her historic win over Rousey at UFC 193, after she viciously knocked out Bethe Correia in the third round of their main event meeting in Singapore this past weekend (Sun. June 17, 2017). She is currently the No. 2-ranked bantamweight in the UFC’s female 135-pound rankings, while Zingano sits at the No. 7 spot.
Zingano recently expressed her interest in taking on “The Preacher’s Daughter” for her next Octagon appearance, and mentioned the possibility of it being a contenders bout for the women’s featherweight championship, which will be awarded to the winner of Cris Cyborg vs. Megan Anderson at UFC 214 next month (Sat. July 29, 2017) in Anaheim, California (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“I’m excited to see Holly do as well as she did against Bethe,” Zingano said. “I’m always a fan of watching (Bethe) get humbled, in that case it was instant. You have to give it to Holly, she’s amazing at implementing a gameplan.
“Recently, I was asked about fighting her and for it to be in contention of possibly fighting the winner of Cyborg (Justino) vs. (Megan) Anderson. My answer is hell yes. As soon as my body is ready to safely go back in there, the heads will be rolling once again. The results and trials of the treatments I’m focusing on are responding and that makes me happy to hear as an athlete, as well as a normal human. Longevity in health and sport are both my top priorities, as well as in the interest of the UFC, who is providing me huge support at this time.”
Cat Zingano is still eyeing a bout with Cris Cyborg, but the timing isn’t right. As of now, Zingano is dealing with some health issues, but she insists she’s making significant progress and should be back soon. “Alpha” has also expressed interest in a fight with former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title holder […]
Cat Zingano is still eyeing a bout with Cris Cyborg, but the timing isn’t right. As of now, Zingano is dealing with some health issues, but she insists she’s making significant progress and should be back soon. “Alpha” has also expressed interest in a fight with former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight title holder […]
Former UFC female bantamweight title contender Cat Zingano isn’t sure when she’ll be ready to fight again, but she has an opponent in mind. Zingano told MMAFighting.com that she would definitely accepted a fight with former champion Holly Holm if offered to her. “Recently, I was asked about fighting (Holm) and for it to be […]
Former UFC female bantamweight title contender Cat Zingano isn’t sure when she’ll be ready to fight again, but she has an opponent in mind. Zingano told MMAFighting.com that she would definitely accepted a fight with former champion Holly Holm if offered to her. “Recently, I was asked about fighting (Holm) and for it to be […]
