Tag: UFC 215

UFC 215 & UFC 216 Bring In Atrocious Pay-Per-View Numbers

The UFC has hit a wall after the massively successful UFC 214 in July. UFC 215, which was headlined by Amanda Nunes vs Valentina Shevchenko II, has an estimated 100,000 PPV buys, while UFC 216 an estimated 120,000, according to MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer. Compare that to UFC 214’s 850,000 buys, but keep in mind […]

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The UFC has hit a wall after the massively successful UFC 214 in July.

UFC 215, which was headlined by Amanda Nunes vs Valentina Shevchenko II, has an estimated 100,000 PPV buys, while UFC 216 an estimated 120,000, according to MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer.

Compare that to UFC 214’s 850,000 buys, but keep in mind that card featured Jon Jones, one of the UFC’s most consistent draws for the UFC when it comes to pay-per-view.

UFC 216 featured an interim lightweight title affair between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee, a bout which, despite having some exciting trash talk in the months leading up to it, apparently didn’t deliver anything resembling decent numbers on accord of it.

The event also featured a co-main event between dominant flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg; Johnson and even though “Mighty Mouse” broke Anderson Silva’s record for most consecutive title defenses with 11, he’s still not known to be a big draw and is usually placed on free FOX or FS1 cards.

2017 has been a slow year for the UFC after the apparent retirement of Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones’ newest failed drug test, and an overall lack of Conor McGregor in the octagon. McGregor fought three times for the UFC in 2016, which was a hugely successful year for the promotion. Yet his one-time run in boxing has kept their biggest star from fighting in the UFC, which has undoubtedly affected PPV buys.

Georges St-Pierre, who used to be the company’s biggest draw, will return from retirement on November 4 when he takes on middleweight champion Michael Bisping, which could stand to be a PPV success.

Or at least, that’s what they need.

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UFC 216 Post-Fight Press Conference

Although it wasn’t the most hyped UFC pay-per-view (PPV) of the year, last night’s (Sat., October 7, 2017) UFC 216 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, delivered a little bit of everything for mixed martial arts (MMA) fans, and thankfully, most of it was extremely exciting. Tony Ferguson weathered a powerful assault from rising […]

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Although it wasn’t the most hyped UFC pay-per-view (PPV) of the year, last night’s (Sat., October 7, 2017) UFC 216 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, delivered a little bit of everything for mixed martial arts (MMA) fans, and thankfully, most of it was extremely exciting.

Tony Ferguson weathered a powerful assault from rising contender Kevin Lee to submit ‘The Motown Phenom’ and win the interim lightweight title in the main event, while dominant flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson broke Anderson Silva’s record for most consecutive title defenses when he tapped out Ray Borg with an insane suplex-to-armbar submission the likes of which we’ve truly never seen.

The card also featured back-and-forth wars and more submissions like Fabricio Werdum’s textbook 65-second armbar of short-notice replacement Walt Harris.

The event provided the MMA world with a lot to digest, so join the fighters for their reactions at the UFC 216 post-fight press conference streaming live right now:

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Kevin Lee Thinks Demetrious Johnson Should Be ‘Thanking Him’ For UFC 216

UFC 216 headliner Kevin Lee has risen from relative obscurity to fighting for the interim lightweight title in a little over a year. Now riding an impressive five-fight win streak including four finishes in a row, Lee is set to take on Tony Ferguson in the main event of the pay-per-view (PPV) card from Las […]

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UFC 216 headliner Kevin Lee has risen from relative obscurity to fighting for the interim lightweight title in a little over a year.

Now riding an impressive five-fight win streak including four finishes in a row, Lee is set to take on Tony Ferguson in the main event of the pay-per-view (PPV) card from Las Vegas on October 7, while longtime flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson takes a back seat as he attempts to secure his record-seeking 11th title defense in a row against Ray Borg in the co-main.

While it may seem unfair for Lee to headline UFC 216 over the far more accomplished ‘Mighty Mouse,’ the Detroit, Michigan native actually sees it as favorable for the flyweight champ, who has historically not been a ratings draw compared to his fellow UFC champion colleagues.

““I think that’s the way it should be. The UFC knows that…

“Look, Demetrious if anything, Demetrious should be thanking me. He’s getting pay-per-view points for the first time in his career, and it’s going to be because of me. So, if anything, I’m looking for a lil’ Christmas gift from Demetrious… I think the demand is definitely out here, more for this fight, than especially Demetrious vs. Ray Borg. I mean come on. Demetrious has to give it up to me. I’m putting money in his pocket; how can he be upset? When we do the press conference, and I’m sitting right next to him, I’ll let him know.”

Johnson notoriously turned down a super fight with former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw in favor of a fight with the far lesser-known Borg, much to the public chagrin of UFC President Dana White.

The Borg fight was initially scheduled for September’s UFC 215; however, a last-minute illness forced the challenger out of the fight and off the card.

Whether or not Johnson’s refusal to fight Dillashaw played any part in his taking a back seat to Lee vs Ferguson remains unknown, but Lee figures his fight with Ferguson is the main event for a reason.

“I think people are excited to see more out of me, and I’m excited to show it to them. Tony, he can take a shot. He can keep moving. He even scrambles well on the ground. I feel like we will have a lot of different exchanges, a lot of momentum. I’m excited for it.”

Do you agree with Lee vs. Ferguson headlining over ‘Mighty Mouse’s attempt to make history?

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UFC 215 Prelims Bring In LOW Numbers

The viewership numbers are in for the UFC 215 prelims. This card had some star power but not enough to generate a ton of buzz leading into the event. The prelims averaged 418,000 viewers, which is down from the 886,000 viewers that the UFC 214 prelims did on FXX. The first hour did 153,000 viewers […]

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The viewership numbers are in for the UFC 215 prelims. This card had some star power but not enough to generate a ton of buzz leading into the event.

The prelims averaged 418,000 viewers, which is down from the 886,000 viewers that the UFC 214 prelims did on FXX. The first hour did 153,000 viewers from the more limited FS2 audience. The second hour, headlined by the Sara McMann vs. Ketlen Vieira fight, on FS1, did 418,000 viewers. The previous low mark of the year was 657,000 viewers.

It needs to be noted that UFC 214 preliminary aired on FXX, which is an unfamiliar station to the UFC audience. Previously, UFC pay-per-view prelims were almost always on FS1, which is a higher rated station.

The prelims started late on FS1 because of the coverage of the Walker Cup golf tournament running long. In defense of FS1, they did tell viewers who were tuning in to see the UFC broadcast to go to FS2. However, a large percentage of viewers didn’t have access to the station. For a breakdown, FS2 is currently available in about 52,170,000 U.S. homes as compared to 84,421,000 for FS1.

The UFC did have to go up against some tough competition. There were four national college football games airing at the same time of this event. Oklahoma vs. Ohio State that did 8,081,000 viewers, and a NASCAR race going head-to-head.

Here are the average viewership numbers for UFC PPV preliminary cards in 2017:

UFC 208 – 874,000

UFC 209 – 1,033,000

UFC 210 – 723,000

UFC 211 – 1,148,000

UFC 212 – 732,000

UFC 213 – 657,000

UFC 214 – 886,000

UFC 215 – 418,000

The post-fight show pulled in 28,000 viewers on FS2 in the first half hour before FS 1’s coverage of the post-fight show started at 1:30 a.m. and did 172,000 viewers. That is down from UFC 214 pre-fight show pulled in 307,000 viewers on FXX. The weigh-ins drew 76,000 viewers, which is down from 245,000 viewers that the UFC 214 weigh-ins drew. A replay of the UFC 213 weigh-ins did 26,000 and an FS 2 replay doing 34,000.

Fight fans get ready because the UFC is bringing you, even more, action this weekend. UFC Fight Night 116 takes place on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A middleweight bout between former Strikeforce and UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold and former WSOF Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Champion David Branch will headline this event.

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UFC 215: ‘The Thrill & The Agony’ Showcases Nunes’ Title Defense Against Shevchenko

UFC 215 has wrapped up and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has rolled out their latest “The Thrill and the Agony” preview. The event was held inside the Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta on Sept. 9. Headlining the card was a UFC women’s bantamweight title bout between champion Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. After five […]

UFC 215 has wrapped up and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has rolled out their latest “The Thrill and the Agony” preview. The event was held inside the Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta on Sept. 9. Headlining the card was a UFC women’s bantamweight title bout between champion Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. After five […]

UFC Rankings Update: Jon Jones Gets Removed – Again

Although last weekend’s (Sat., September 9, 2017) UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton provided a decent rankings shake-up for the UFC in its own right, the biggest MMA news of the week has obviously been fixated on the disappointing saga of former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and his UFC 214 drug test failure. […]

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Although last weekend’s (Sat., September 9, 2017) UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton provided a decent rankings shake-up for the UFC in its own right, the biggest MMA news of the week has obviously been fixated on the disappointing saga of former UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and his UFC 214 drug test failure.

News first arrived that Jones’ third-round knockout win over Cormier at UFC 214 had been overturned to a no-contest, which lead to Jones being stripped of the title while Cormier was reinstated. So as expected, Jones has now been removed from the official UFC rankings, where he was previously dropped below Demetrious Johnson and Conor McGregor on the pound-for-pound list while the results of his B-sample were awaited.

He failed for anabolic steroid turinabol in the second test, too, and has now been removed from the pound-and-for-pound and light heavyweight ranks.

In terms of actual fighting, Rafael dos Anjos rose an amazing five spots at welterweight for his dominant submission over Neil Magny at UFC 215, while Ketlen Vieira almost duplicated that, moving up four spots to No. 9 for her submission win over the formerly surging veteran Sara McMann. Robbie Lawler also moved into a tie with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson at welterweights top spot.

Here are the full updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Stipe Miocic +1
4 Max Holloway +1
5 Cody Garbrandt +1
6 Daniel Cormier +1
7 Joanna Jedrzejczyk +1
8 Tyron Woodley +1
9 Dominick Cruz +1
10 Jose Aldo +2
11 Michael Bisping
12 Cris Cyborg +1
13 Robert Whittaker +1
14 Amanda Nunes +1
15 TJ Dillashaw *NR

FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Sergio Pettis
5 Jussier Formiga +1
6 Wilson Reis -1
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Tim Elliott
10 John Moraga
11 Dustin Ortiz
12 Ian McCall
13 Alexandre Pantoja
14 Louis Smolka
15 Magomed Bibulatov

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Cody Garbrandt
1 Dominick Cruz
2 TJ Dillashaw
3 Jimmie Rivera
4 Raphael Assuncao
5 John Lineker
6 Bryan Caraway
7 Aljamain Sterling
8 John Dodson
9 Thomas Almeida
10 Marlon Moraes
11 Eddie Wineland
12 Pedro Munhoz
13 Rob Font
14 Matthew Lopez
15 Johnny Eduardo

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Brian Ortega
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Renato Moicano
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury
15 Jason Knight

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Kevin Lee
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Michael Johnson
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Evan Dunham +1
15 Mairbek Taisumov *NR

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion : Tyron Woodley
1 Robbie Lawler +1
1 Stephen Thompson
3 Demian Maia
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Rafael Dos Anjos +5
6 Donald Cerrone
7 Carlos Condit -2
8 Colby Covington
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
9 Neil Magny -3
11 Gunnar Nelson
12 Dong Hyun Kim
13 Kamaru Usman
14 Alex Oliveira
15 Tarec Saffiedine

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Michael Bisping
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman
6 Anderson Silva
7 Derek Brunson
8 Kelvin Gastelum
9 David Branch
10 Krzysztof Jotko
11 Vitor Belfort
12 Thales Leites
13 Tim Boetsch
14 Uriah Hall
15 Thiago Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
0 Daniel Cormier +1
1 Alexander Gustafsson +1
2 Volkan Oezdemir +1
3 Glover Teixeira +1
4 Jimi Manuwa +1
5 Mauricio Rua +1
6 Ovince Saint Preux +1
7 Corey Anderson +1
8 Misha Cirkunov +1
9 Ilir Latifi +1
10 Rogerio Nogueira +1
11 Patrick Cummins +1
12 Gadzhimurad Antigulov +3
13 Gian Villante +1
14 Tyson Pedro -1

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Aleksei Oleinik
10 Stefan Struve
11 Andrei Arlovski
12 Junior Albini
13 Curtis Blaydes
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion : Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Jessica Andrade
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Cynthia Calvillo +1
8 Carla Esparza -1
9 Felice Herrig
10 Paige VanZant
11 Cortney Casey +1
11 Alexa Grasso +2
13 Joanne Calderwood -2
14 Randa Markos
15 Maryna Moroz

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington +1
5 Ronda Rousey -1
6 Cat Zingano +1
7 Sara McMann -1
8 Germaine de Randamie
9 Ketlen Vieira +4
10 Liz Carmouche -1
10 Alexis Davis
12 Marion Reneau -1
13 Katlyn Chookagian -1
14 Bethe Correia
15 Leslie Smith *NR

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