UFC 221 Buyrate & Medical Suspensions Revealed

UFC 221 is in the books and both the buyrate and medical suspensions have been unveiled. Over at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed that UFC 221 did 130,000 buys. The card was headlined by a middleweight clash between Yoel Romero …

UFC 221 is in the books and both the buyrate and medical suspensions have been unveiled. Over at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed that UFC 221 did 130,000 buys. The card was headlined by a middleweight clash between Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold. Romero earned a third-round knockout victory. Shifting gears to medical […]

Michael Bisping Sounds Off On Yoel Romero Kissing Luke Rockhold

Michael Bisping thinks Yoel Romero took it a little too far after knocking out Luke Rockhold in the main event of last weekend’s UFC 221 from Australia. Following a close, carefully-fought bout from both in the opening two rounds, “The Soldier of God” exploded in the third round with a devastating left to Rockhold’s temple […]

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Michael Bisping thinks Yoel Romero took it a little too far after knocking out Luke Rockhold in the main event of last weekend’s UFC 221 from Australia.

Following a close, carefully-fought bout from both in the opening two rounds, “The Soldier of God” exploded in the third round with a devastating left to Rockhold’s temple and a follow-up uppercut that instantly flipped the former champ’s lights off.

Adding insult to injury in the eyes of some, Romero then professed his love for Rockhold and literally kissed him while he still clearly dazed. One fighter wasn’t a fan of the post-fight scene, as Michael Bisping, who, ironically enough, brutally knocked out Rockhold to win the belt back at UFC 199 in 2016, recently criticized what Romero did on his Believe You Me podcast (via MMA Mania):

“I don’t take pleasure from seeing somebody knocked out like that, I really don’t,” Bisping said on his latest Believe You Me podcast. “He got knocked out and he just looked so devastated, absolutely crushed. Then to make matters worse, Romero — the guy that just knocked him out — gets in his face, pins him up against the fence, has his arms over his shoulders like that so Rockhold literally can’t go anywhere and he’s professing his undying love for him, ‘I love you Luke, I love you.’

“There’s nothing wrong with kissing a man on the cheek,” he said. “But I just think after you’ve knocked them out cold, after you’ve taken away their dreams of being world champion, after you’ve literally inflicted a lot of violence, the marks are visible, there’s blood on his face, he’s maybe lost some brain cells and he doesn’t know what the f**k is going on — pinning the guy up against the Octagon and trying to make out with him is a little bit much.”

Despite his differences with both Rockhold and Romero, “The Count” thinks the Australian commission presiding over UFC 221 should have been more present to prevent the scene from happening, because some serious ramifications could have resulted:

”I’ve got to say, in that circumstance, and I’m not trying to knock any of the officials, but really happy Valentines Day, it’s really quite the couple they make there, I’ve got to say, they shouldn’t allow that to happen in future because you got to remember, think about it. I know when I’ve been knocked out you haven’t got a clue what’s going on. You haven’t got a jar of f**king clues where your head is at and you have to piece it back together.

”And then all of a sudden you have the guy who has just knocked you out with his arms around you, up against the Octagon sexually assaulting you, #MeToo. There’s nothing to stop Rockhold elbowing him in the face, punching him, because he might still feel the fight is going on. Who knows? I just don’t think they should allow, certainly not Romero, I mean come on, it was a little bit much.”

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Viewership Drops For UFC 221 Prelims

It’s time to look at how the viewership for the UFC 221 prelims did on network television. The ratings have come out, and the prelims for the show pulled in 697,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1. Also, the prelims did 8,022 streaming viewers on FSGO and FOX Now over an average minute. By looking at […]

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It’s time to look at how the viewership for the UFC 221 prelims did on network television.

The ratings have come out, and the prelims for the show pulled in 697,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1.

Also, the prelims did 8,022 streaming viewers on FSGO and FOX Now over an average minute.

By looking at these numbers, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise due to the lackluster names on the card, which had to go head-to-head with the Winter Olympics on NBC that drew 21,394,000 viewers with figure skating, ice dancing, and men’s alpine skiing.

This show ranked fourth among sports broadcasts in the time slot as they were behind the NBA game that saw Golden State Warriors vs. San Antonio Spurs draw 781,000 viewers and college basketball on ESPN that did 1,308,000 viewers.

The latest PPV prelims on FOX Sports 1 was UFC 220 and featured a better card that was headlined by Stipe Miocic successfully retaining his heavyweight strap against Francis Ngannou in the main event. Those prelims did 905,000 viewers.

There was only four PPV prelim shows last year that pulled in a lower number than UFC 221’s show did.

The prelims peaked with 821,000 viewers for the Dong Hyun Kim vs. Damien Brown fight.

It should be noted that most of the pre-fight show, who drew 36,000 viewers, was moved to FOX Sports 2 due to an ARCA race at Daytona Motor Speedway. The post-fight show did 188,000 viewers.

Here are the average viewership numbers for UFC PPV preliminary cards over the last year:

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

UFC 216 – 653,000

UFC 217 – 1,276,000

UFC 218 – 694,000

UFC 219 – 914,000

UFC 220 – 905,000

UFC 221 697,000

The post Viewership Drops For UFC 221 Prelims appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC 221 Preliminaries Bring in 697,000 Viewers

UFC 221 preliminaries viewership data is in. The FOX Sports 1 (FS1) broadcast drew 697,000 viewers (via MMAFighting.com). The prelims peaked at 821,000 viewers for the bout between “Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim and Damien Brown. In addition to th…

UFC 221 preliminaries viewership data is in. The FOX Sports 1 (FS1) broadcast drew 697,000 viewers (via MMAFighting.com). The prelims peaked at 821,000 viewers for the bout between “Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim and Damien Brown. In addition to the FS1 broadcast, 8,022 viewers saw the card through FOX Now and the FOX Sports Go streaming service. […]

UFC Rankings Update: ‘Jacare’ Passes Rockhold Following UFC 221

The UFC went back to Australia last weekend (Sat., February 10, 2018) with UFC 221 from the Perth Arena in Perth, and Yoel Romero stole the show by knocking out former champ Luke Rockhold in the third round of the main event. It was a rough weekend for Rockhold, as he was originally set to face […]

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The UFC went back to Australia last weekend (Sat., February 10, 2018) with UFC 221 from the Perth Arena in Perth, and Yoel Romero stole the show by knocking out former champ Luke Rockhold in the third round of the main event.

It was a rough weekend for Rockhold, as he was originally set to face champion Robert Whittaker before “The Reaper” got injured, and then Romero missed weight but still won. The newly updated official UFC rankings added a bit of insult to injury for Rockhold, as he fell to No. 3 when Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza passed him to take the No. 2 spot.

The other division that saw significant movement was heavyweight, where rising prospect Curtis Blaydes moved up four spots to No. 5 for his wrestling-focused decision win over longtime veteran Mark Hunt, who fell one spot to No. 6, in the co-main event. Australian knockout artist Tai Tuivasa made his debut on the heavyweight rankings at No. 15 after a dominant stoppage of Cyril Asker in Perth.

Check out the full updated rankings via UFC.com:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Daniel Cormier
4 Stipe Miocic
5 Max Holloway
6 Georges St-Pierre
7 TJ Dillashaw
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Cris Cyborg
9 Tony Ferguson +1
11 Robert Whittaker +1
11 Cody Garbrandt
13 Amanda Nunes
14 Khabib Nurmagomedov
15 Joanna Jedrzejczyk

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

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

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

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Tony Ferguson (Interim Champion)
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Dustin Poirier
6 Justin Gaethje
7 Kevin Lee
8 Nate Diaz
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Al Iaquinta
11 Beneil Dariush
12 James Vick
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Francisco Trinaldo
15 Evan Dunham

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

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Jacare Souza +1
3 Luke Rockhold -1
4 Chris Weidman
5 Kelvin Gastelum
6 Michael Bisping
7 Derek Brunson
8 David Branch
9 Uriah Hall
10 Vitor Belfort
11 Thiago Santos
12 Lyoto Machida
13 Krzysztof Jotko
14 Paulo Costa
15 Brad Tavares

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Glover Teixeira
2 Volkan Oezdemir
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ovince Saint Preux
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Misha Cirkunov
8 Corey Anderson
8 Ilir Latifi
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Jan Blachowicz
12 Tyson Pedro +1
13 Gadzhimurad Antigulov -1
14 Gian Villante
15 Jared Cannonier

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

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

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Sijara Eubanks
3 Lauren Murphy
4 Alexis Davis
5 Roxanne Modafferi
6 Barb Honchak
7 Liz Carmouche
8 Katlyn Chookagian
9 Jessica-Rose Clark
10 Jessica Eye
11 Montana De La Rosa
12 Rachael Ostovich
13 Mara Romero Borella
14 Paige VanZant
15 Shana Dobson

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Holly Holm
2 Julianna Pena
3 Raquel Pennington
4 Germaine de Randamie
5 Ketlen Vieira
6 Cat Zingano
7 Sara McMann
8 Marion Reneau +1
9 Ronda Rousey -1
9 Leslie Smith +1
11 Bethe Correia
12 Aspen Ladd
13 Sarah Moras
14 Irene Aldana
15 Ashlee Evans-Smith

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UFC Rankings Report: UFC 221 Causes Movement in 3 Divisions

The UFC’s trip to Perth created movement in 3 UFC divisions this weekend. The UFC rankings have been updated and as a result of wins by heavyweights Curtis Blaydes and Tui Tuivasa, the heavyweight division was impacted the most. Let’s take …

The UFC’s trip to Perth created movement in 3 UFC divisions this weekend. The UFC rankings have been updated and as a result of wins by heavyweights Curtis Blaydes and Tui Tuivasa, the heavyweight division was impacted the most. Let’s take a look at all 3 divisions impacted by this weekend’s fights: UFC Heavyweight Division Rankings […]