UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is set for a quick turnaround. While he successfully defended his belt just a few weeks ago at UFC 174, Johnson is now tabbed to defend his belt at UFC 177 opposite Chris Cariaso, according to Ya…
UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is set for a quick turnaround. While he successfully defended his belt just a few weeks ago at UFC 174, Johnson is now tabbed to defend his belt at UFC 177 opposite Chris Cariaso, according to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole.
Cariaso is currently riding a three-fight winning streak, with victories over Iliarde Santos, Danny Martinez and Louis Smolka. He owns a 4-2 record in the UFC as a flyweight and was an above-average bantamweight before that.
The news that Cariaso was slated for the belt is somewhat surprising. This Saturday, Ian McCall and Brad Pickett face off in a crucial flyweight tilt. While the winner of that fight would have been a solid contender for the champ, the UFC instead opted for a sure thing in Cariaso.
After a solid run in World Extreme Cagefighting, Johnson became the UFC’s first flyweight champion in 2012. In the time since, he has climbed his way up MMA‘s pound-for-pound rankings and cemented his status as one of the best fighters in the sport.
However, in spite of his technical brilliance, fans have been slow to accept him. While the UFC hoped that a brutal one-punch knockout of Joseph Benavidez had warmed up fans enough that he could carry a pay-per-view, reports that UFC 174 hovered around 100,000 buys mired an otherwise masterful victory over Ali Bagautinov.
UFC 177 will go down August 30 in Sacramento, California. The card is headlined by the silly rematch between UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw and Renan Barao. While Barao, like Johnson, could scarcely draw crickets to chirp at his pay-per-view fights, the UFC is hoping that doubling up on champions will entice fans.
Yesterday, MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer reported that UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw pulled an estimated 200,000-215,000 pay-per-view buys. While that number is certainly on the low end of UFC buyrates, it’s not a disaster by any means. Keep in mind that UFC 169 — a card that featured a Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber rematch, Jose Aldo defending his featherweight belt against Ricardo Lamas, and a high-profile heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Frank Mir — only earned an estimated 230,000 buys back in February. On paper, UFC 173 was arguably a weaker offering, but the buyrate wasn’t that far off. Basically, it could have been a lot worse.
“It’s too early to get accurate numbers, but every indication we’ve gotten was very bad, and that it showed a steep decline from UFC 173, which was among the lower numbers of the last eight years. UFC PPV shows usually range from 200,000 to 500,000 Google searches after the event, and are usually in the top few searched for items in the country. A bad show may only do 100,000. Bellator’s show last month hit 100,000. A big show can top 500,000, with the shows that hover around 1 million buys usually doing anywhere from 1 million to 5 million searches. This show did less than 20,000, unheard of for a PPV…
(*crickets* / Photo via Getty)
Yesterday, MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer reported that UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw pulled an estimated 200,000-215,000 pay-per-view buys. While that number is certainly on the low end of UFC buyrates, it’s not a disaster by any means. Keep in mind that UFC 169 — a card that featured a Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber rematch, Jose Aldo defending his featherweight belt against Ricardo Lamas, and a high-profile heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Frank Mir — only earned an estimated 230,000 buys back in February. On paper, UFC 173 was arguably a weaker offering, but the buyrate wasn’t that far off. Basically, it could have been a lot worse.
“It’s too early to get accurate numbers, but every indication we’ve gotten was very bad, and that it showed a steep decline from UFC 173, which was among the lower numbers of the last eight years. UFC PPV shows usually range from 200,000 to 500,000 Google searches after the event, and are usually in the top few searched for items in the country. A bad show may only do 100,000. Bellator’s show last month hit 100,000. A big show can top 500,000, with the shows that hover around 1 million buys usually doing anywhere from 1 million to 5 million searches. This show did less than 20,000, unheard of for a PPV.
Unlike UFC 173, which looked weak on paper and everyone knew wasn’t going to draw much, it still had Dan Henderson and Daniel Cormier in the No. 2 spot. They brought some star power in what was really the main event. It also had a lot to talk about after, due to T.J. Dillashaw’s upset win over Renan Barao.
This show didn’t have much interest going in. But most of the time, those type of shows deliver good action. This had none of that. It wasn’t terrible, but there was no fight you needed to see. As a likely sign of how the show went, Dana White didn’t even attend the post-fight press conference.”
In response to Meltzer’s story, our twitter friend @Niko138 added some inside information that suggests the UFC 174 buyrate was beyond dismal. Treat this as a rumor for now, but holy crap:
I’ve heard from a couple of people who would know, that early estimates of 174 buys have it just a bit under 100k. The sole reason I am posting about this (I normally try not to be one of those ratings/buys posters who everyone hates) is because if the show truly did this bad, it will be a good thing for us fans who complain about watered down cards. The UFC’s core audience was really being tested with this card, to see how much they could get away with buys wise, for a card with absolutely no drawing power to the casual viewer.
If this is the case, it sends a strong message to the UFC that the watered down cards are no longer going over with fans. For me, considering the cards are $60 and there is 14 a year…this is great news.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the number that comes out in the press is just above that, like 125…If you see the number come out around that area, then trust me, it did under 100k. This has to piss Dana off to no end considering the Bellator show did do a legit 100k
This is really interesting stuff to me, because like I said.. if true, the UFC is going to realize they can’t keep putting on shows like this as a numbered PPV, and expect its fans to continuously just blindly shell out the cash.
That’s a step in the right direction.. they know they are losing PPV buys, and hopefully they step their game up to fix it, by putting on more big fights per card. We can hope anyway.
So, a couple things. MMAPayout’s PPV Blue Book only dates back to UFC 57 in February 2006, and doesn’t show any UFC pay-per-view doing less than 140k buys. But according to Wikipedia (I know, I know), the last UFC PPV that did under 100k buys was UFC 53: Heavy Hitters, which took in just 90,000 buys in June 2005. In other words, you have to go back nine years to find a UFC PPV that performed as terribly as UFC 174 allegedly did.
My other thought is this: “Putting on more big fights per card” is not necessarily the answer. After years of seeing these UFC buyrates ebb and flow, my totally non-scientific conclusion is that 1) casual UFC fans only care about who’s fighting in the main event, and 2) nobody cares about little flyweights. Seriously. Non-Rousey bantamweight and featherweight title fights have always underperformed on pay-per-view, and it should come as no surprise that the first time the UFC tried to put a flyweight title fight in a pay-per-view main event, it would pull record-low numbers.
So, if the 100k buyrate is accurate — or even close to accurate — it’ll get the UFC’s attention. But don’t expect the promotion to start putting together more stacked PPVs in response; remember they have like 50 events/year to fill out, and they simply don’t have the manpower for it. Instead, the UFC’s major takeaway will probably be this: If we have to put a flyweight title fight on a pay-per-view card, there had better be a bigger fight on top of it.
Demetrious Johnson did it again on Saturday at UFC 174, leaving yet another highly ranked challenger choking on his exhaust fumes with astonishing ease.
This time it was Ali Bagautinov starting out game but ending the fight down 50-45 on all three scor…
Demetrious Johnson did it again on Saturday at UFC 174, leaving yet another highly ranked challenger choking on his exhaust fumes with astonishing ease.
This time it was Ali Bagautinov starting out game but ending the fight down 50-45 on all three scorecards. The 29-year-old Dagestani fighter came in undefeated in the Octagon and riding an 11-fight overall win streak, but by the end of 25 minutes with Johnson, he looked as helpless as the rest.
Dominance is becoming a habit for the UFC’s 27-year-old flyweight champion. Johnson’s unique brand of excellence hasn’t yielded monster ratings, but so far opponents have been powerless to reckon with his blend of mobility, versatility and quickness.
Johnson has been the 125-pound titlist for less than two years, and he’s already cleaned out the rest of the division’s Top Five. His ability to chew up and spit out top contenders only feeds our view of the flyweight class as a work still in progress.
Depth may be an issue for the UFC’s newest men’s division, but a surprising number of viable contenders still lurk. Here’s a look at several who could still give Johnson a run for his money in 2014.
Demetrious Johnson looked like the epitome of the word dominant when he defeated Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174. Commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg spoke in awe of the champion’s speed, technique and skill as he controlled nearly every aspect of the f…
Demetrious Johnson looked like the epitome of the word dominant when he defeated Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174. Commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg spoke in awe of the champion’s speed, technique and skill as he controlled nearly every aspect of the fight.
The UFC has Johnson sitting as the fourth-best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, but the question has come up whether or not he has what it takes to be considered the best in MMA.
“Mighty Mouse” has continued to look light-years ahead of every other man in the flyweight division. His victory over Ali gave him his four straight title defenses since capturing the belt in September 2012. Each time he wins, he’s demonstrated a level of improvement that others have yet to match. It’s this continued separation that makes Johnson’s reign as champion quite different from the other titleholders within the UFC.
Since becoming the UFC’s first flyweight champion, Johnson has flown under the radar. He was originally tucked away on the UFC’s free televised events on the Fox platform. It seemed that he was charged with leading a weight class that was struggling to catch the mainstream fan’s attention. Johnson answered the call by solidifying himself as one of the best titleholders in the organization.
In four title defenses, “Mighty Mouse” has shown continuous leaps toward becoming a complete fighter. According to Fight Metric, the flyweight champion has landed more significant strikes than any opponent he’s faced.
Yet, what is more interesting is the way he’s surpassed that point as champion. In his five title bouts, Demetrious has nearly doubled his opponents’ striking output. Many of these fights have gone into the fifth round, where Johnson looks like he’s as fresh as he was in the first.
Another area of interest when speaking about Johnson is his new determination to finish opponents. Leading up to his fight against Bagautinov, Johnson talked freely about stopping challengers.
“I did it with the best fighters in the world,” Johnson was quoted as saying by Brent Brookhouse of Bloody Elbow. “Joseph, he’d never been finished. I ended up knocking him out. John Moraga, he’d never been finished. I ended up submitting him.”
Many fans have complained that some champions begin to “fight safe” to protect the title rather than entertain. Johnson is going in the exact opposite direction. Against Moraga, he had the fight secured on the scorecards but still locked in the fifth-round armbar.
Bagautinov was in the same position, but that didn’t stop Demetrious from taking risks in an attempt to finish him. Johnson’s fighting style should be appreciated by the fans who dislike those that don’t throw caution to the wind.
The UFC has Johnson currently sitting in the fourth position in the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings. While these opinions are merely just that, it’s interesting to see the development of arguments that will consider DJ the best in the sport. Demetrious Johnson may only be 5’3″ and fight at 125 pounds, but he’s setting himself apart as the potential pound-for-pound king of mixed martial arts.
It was a nice little theory we had there. Real nice.
Anyone with a rooting interest in MMA was kind of looking at it the same way: If the UFC gives away the fights of a guy who’s pretty good on Fox, they’ll be able to monetize him on pay-per-view once …
It was a nice little theory we had there. Real nice.
Anyone with a rooting interest in MMA was kind of looking at it the same way: If the UFC gives away the fights of a guy who’s pretty good on Fox, they’ll be able to monetize him on pay-per-view once people are hooked.
Definitely sound reasoning on paper.
Think of all the free samples you get in the mail, or the fact that you can go to Costco on a Saturday afternoon and end up with a full meal from the bite-sized samplers at the end of every aisle.
Giving people a taste for free often works when the endgame is getting them to buy that thing later on down the line.
This time, though, there has to be reason for concern.
Why? According to reports within the arena, people at UFC 174 were leaving before the main event was even over, indicating that the free samples hadn’t done much of a job over the past year or so.
Headliner Demetrious Johnson, infallible flyweight champion and, for the purposes of this comparison, the sample you got in the mail or at the end of the aisle, was still plying his trade when the fans decided they’d had enough.
His one-sided trouncing of Ali Bagautinov, another technical master class for Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan to tell you all about, wasn’t interesting enough to keep the fans in their seats.
Battling an early rush for cabs in the Vancouver rain was more appealing than watching what you’d paid (handsomely) to watch.
Now sure, that in and of itself isn’t the end of the world. It’s bad, but it could have happened to anyone, and just as easily could have happened on one of the Fox shows, as opposed to with Johnson headlining his first pay-per-view.
However, the question here is not necessarily about people leaving the venue early, but rather what that action represents for UFC in the greater scheme of things.
The UFC has put considerable time and effort into making Johnson a known commodity. Millions upon millions of people have now seen him bouncing around the Octagon at breakneck pace, peppering challengers with all manners of physical demolition.
Going into Saturday, he’d had spectacular finishes in his last two bouts and hadn’t been in a truly bad fight for as long as he’d been in the UFC.
What did all that get him? 14,000 people who paid to watch him couldn’t be bothered to see it through. If that was the attitude of the people who were already in the door, what’s to be expected of people in their living rooms as they decided whether or not to part with their $60?
There’s no way to say for sure, but no one could believe it to be positive without a little hand-wringing and collar-tugging.
It’s weird how that happens in sports. How a guy doesn’t resonate no matter how badly the powers that be want to make him a star. It’s that much worse in MMA, the ultimate singles sport, one where you live and die solely by your own performances and personality.
And when those powers that be give those performances and that personality away for nothing, expecting it to pay off in the long run? Well buddy, it better. If not, there’s no telling how long the losses will be felt or how deep they’ll run.
Demetrious Johnson confirmed his flyweight division dominance at UFC 174’s main event, defeating Ali Bagautinov by unanimous decision on Saturday.
Mighty Mouse is definitely among the best pound-for-pound MMA fighters on the planet, and he showed a div…
Demetrious Johnson confirmed his flyweight division dominance at UFC 174‘s main event, defeating Ali Bagautinov by unanimous decision on Saturday.
Mighty Mouse is definitely among the best pound-for-pound MMA fighters on the planet, and he showed a diverse arsenal with no discernible weaknesses against an outmatched Bagautinov. With more challengers at his weight bound to eagerly step forward, Johnson figures to have plenty of takers to further prove himself in his current weight class.
“I’m the king,” said Johnson after the bout, per MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco. “I’ll stay the king as long as I can, and I’ll keep knocking them down.”
This fight was so one-sided—Johnson won each of the five rounds on all three judges’ cards—that fans at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, even headed for the exits early. Fans didn’t want to even see Johnson cap off an outcome that was well in hand from the beginning.
MMA Show News’ David Kano shared a similar sentiment with regard to flyweights as the headliner:
MMA analyst Robin Black couldn’t get enough of Johnson’s virtuosic display, though:
There is also still room for Johnson to improve, as devastating as he’s been. Sometimes his footwork isn’t the best, not quite matching up with his splendid speed. He also has enough force on his strikes to not even need devastating punch combinations.
Bagautinov simply played into Johnson’s hands, not requiring him to adjust his game plan. UFC on Fox noted how Bagautinov‘s best strategy didn’t work even in the first round, which was a bad sign of things to come:
Backpedaling frequently toward the edges of the Octagon, the Puncher King didn’t quite live up to his moniker. Johnson capitalized by pummeling him against the cage and giving Bagautinov little opportunity to counter. According to FightMetric, Johnson landed 61 percent of his significant strikes compared to Bagautinov‘s meager 29 percent.
Considering that Bagautinov had won with relative ease in his previous 11 fights before facing Johnson, there aren’t many more candidates capable of even giving Johnson a stiff test.
But the fact that fans left early suggests Johnson isn’t quite the main event draw that UFC president Dana White was looking for.
Now that Johnson has successfully defended the UFC Flyweight Championship for the fourth time, he should disprove any of his doubters that he has the ability to step into the bantamweight threshold. Perhaps fighting at a heavier weight will help Johnson’s profile.
Johnson seems to be on a different level in improving his MMA record to 20-2-1. With how much of a world-class fighter Bagautinov is reputed to be, anyone keen on tangling with Johnson next should be at least slightly fearful. One strike could change everything, yet Johnson appears too fast to allow a knockout blow to come his way.
The UFC’s official flyweight rankings have John Dodson as the best option to square off with Johnson next, but he lost to Mighty Mouse by unanimous decision in January 2013. Although Dodson is a compelling personality, even a career performance may not be enough to knock off Johnson.
There is almost nowhere for Johnson to go but down, or to stay stagnant, barring a move to bantamweight. However, dominating at the highest level of a sport can’t be getting old just yet. Johnson figures to make good on his post-fight testimony and be crowned as the perpetual UFC flyweight champion.
UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is set for a quick turnaround. While he successfully defended his belt just a few weeks ago at UFC 174, Johnson is now tabbed to defend his belt at UFC 177 opposite Chris Cariaso, according to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole.
