UFC 222 Prelims Beats Wilder-Ortiz In Ratings This Past Weekend

The fight world was in for a treat this past weekend as it had two big sporting events, which were UFC 222 and the boxing showdown that aired on Showtime. That fight, of course, is the huge boxing bout between the challenger, Luis Ortiz, and WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. This big boxing bout went […]

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The fight world was in for a treat this past weekend as it had two big sporting events, which were UFC 222 and the boxing showdown that aired on Showtime.

That fight, of course, is the huge boxing bout between the challenger, Luis Ortiz, and WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.

This big boxing bout went down on Saturday, March 3, 2018, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. UFC 222 went down on the same night but at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The finish of this boxing bout saw both fighters rock each other in the tenth round and Wilder tossed him aside. Wilder rained down strikes that knocked Ortiz down then followed up with some more strikes to finish the fight.

On the flip side, the main event of UFC 222 saw Cris Cyborg successfully retain her title against newcomer Yana Kunitskaya by picking up a TKO win in the first round.

Now that the weekend is over, it’s time to look at the ratings. The prelims for UFC 222 pulled in 905,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1, which is up from the 697,000 average that UFC 221 did and exactly the same as UFC 2220 did in January.

Regarding Ortiz-Wilder, that show averaged 730,000 viewers and peaked in the main event with 1.2 million with the average of 1,055,000 viewers.

It should be noted that FOX Sports 1 is in more homes than Showtime, which has a smaller subscription base than HBO

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

UFc 222 – 905,000 

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UFC Rankings Update: Brian Ortega Surpasses Jose Aldo After Huge Knockout

The UFC held their third pay-per-view (PPV) event of the year with last weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and several pivotal rankings changes resulted. The most notable shift undoubtedly went to surging featherweight contender Brian Ortega, who overtook the No. 1 spot at 145 pounds for […]

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The UFC held their third pay-per-view (PPV) event of the year with last weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and several pivotal rankings changes resulted.

The most notable shift undoubtedly went to surging featherweight contender Brian Ortega, who overtook the No. 1 spot at 145 pounds for his scintillating knockout of UFC great Frankie Edgar.

Previously ranked at No. 3 following his submission of Cub Swanson, Ortega pushed longtime former champion Jose Aldo out of the top spot, dropping him to No. 2 and Edgar to No. 3. The previously No. 3-ranked ‘T-City’ filled in for injured champion Max Holloway against Edgar at UFC 222, and will now move on to a title bout with “Blessed” according to UFC president Dana White.

In other rankings movement, former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski rose two spots after a surprisingly wrestling-focused win over Stefan Struve on the main card. Struve fell two spots to No. 12. Debuting lightweight Alexander Hernandez stormed on to the Top 15 with his explosive first-round knockout over previous No. 12 Beneil Dariush, debuting at No. 13 while allowing Anthony Pettis to rise to 12 and dropping Dariush to 15.

John Dodson rose up a spot to No. 7 at bantamweight after a close win over Pedro Munhoz, and Bryan Caraway dropped two spots to No. 9 after a split decision loss to Cody Stamann, who debuted on the 135-pound rankings at No. 12. Finally, at women’s bantamweight, rising contender Ketlen Vieira moved up a spot to No. 4 after her decision win over No. 6 Cat Zingano while writers continue to rank Ronda Rousey, even though she fell two spots, despite her clearly being a WWE-employed pro wrestler.

Here are the fully updated rankings from the official UFC website:

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
10 Tony Ferguson
11 Robert Whittaker
12 Khabib Nurmagomedov +2
12 Cody Garbrandt
14 Amanda Nunes -1
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 John Dodson +1
8 Aljamain Sterling +1
9 Bryan Caraway -2
10 Pedro Munhoz
11 Rob Font
12 Cody Stamann *NR
13 Thomas Almeida -1
14 Brett Johns -1
15 Eddie Wineland -1

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

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 James Vick
12 Anthony Pettis +1
13 Alexander Hernandez *NR
14 Evan Dunham
15 Beneil Dariush -3

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 Kamaru Usman
9 Neil Magny
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Donald Cerrone
12 Carlos Condit
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Dong Hyun Kim
15 Leon Edwards

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Jacare Souza
3 Luke Rockhold
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 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ilir Latifi
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Mauricio Rua
8 Misha Cirkunov
9 Corey Anderson
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Jan Blachowicz
12 Tyson Pedro
13 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
14 Gian Villante
15 Jordan Johnson *NR

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Fabricio Werdum
4 Cain Velasquez
5 Curtis Blaydes
6 Derrick Lewis
6 Mark Hunt
8 Alexander Volkov
9 Marcin Tybura
10 Andrei Arlovski +2
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Stefan Struve -2
13 Junior Albini -1
14 Tai Tuivasa -1
15 Shamil Abdurakhimov *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 Cortney Casey +1
12 Randa Markos -1
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Tatiana Suarez
15 Nina Ansaroff

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 Raquel Pennington
3 Julianna Pena
4 Ketlen Vieira +1
5 Germaine de Randamie -1
6 Cat Zingano
7 Marion Reneau
8 Sara McMann
9 Bethe Correia
10 Leslie Smith -1
11 Aspen Ladd +1
12 Lucie Pudilova +1
13 Ronda Rousey -2
14 Irene Aldana
15 Sarah Moras

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UFC 222 Medical Suspensions: Six Fighters Face Lengthy Layoffs

With every decision comes a consequence and for those fighters who took part in battle at UFC 222, it’s their time to faces those consequences in the form of medical suspensions. UFC 222 took place on Saturday, March 3, 2018 at the T-Mobile Arena in La…

With every decision comes a consequence and for those fighters who took part in battle at UFC 222, it’s their time to faces those consequences in the form of medical suspensions. UFC 222 took place on Saturday, March 3, 2018 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.The main card aired on pay-per-view at 10 […]

Frankie Edgar Reacts To First-Ever Knockout Loss At UFC 222

A shocking changing of the guard took place at this past Saturday night’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas when surging contender Brian Ortega knocked out longtime mainstay Frankie Edgar in the co-main event. Ortega had been stellar throughout his entire unbeaten six-fight UFC run, but few thought he […]

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A shocking changing of the guard took place at this past Saturday night’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas when surging contender Brian Ortega knocked out longtime mainstay Frankie Edgar in the co-main event.

Ortega had been stellar throughout his entire unbeaten six-fight UFC run, but few thought he would handle “The Answer” with such ease – especially on the feet considering he was mainly hyped for his stellar Brazilian jiu-jitsu skill.

Edgar was doing well early on, using his trademark movement to land accurate punches on a much bigger Ortega, yet none of them had close to the impact that “T-City’s” eventual lead elbow and the uppercut that followed to drop Edgar like we’ve never seen before did. The loss was a majorly brutal one for Edgar, a throwback fighter who never even considered not taking the fight after champion Max Holloway pulled out of their originally scheduled title fight because he most likely could have waited for Holloway a second time.

The fact that he didn’t is a testament to his true fighting spirit, win or lose, and he’s not going to stop doing that just because he was sent packing.

Edgar’s longtime boxing coach was at the head of a deserved outpouring of support, issuing a statement of full support and praise for the UFC great, and earlier today, the fighter himself addressed the loss. Always classy, Edgar gave his props to Ortega and vowed he’d be back to put it on the line again:

The former lightweight champ deserves a measure of respect for taking a fight in which he had everything to lose and his only reward was the positioning he had already earned, yet there’s no doubt it’s a big setback for a 36-year-old fighter in a division that’s undergone a major youth movement in the past two years thanks to Holloway and Ortega.

But the iron-willed Edgar is far from done.

The time may be now for Edgar to make a long-rumored move down to 135 pounds if he can because he was towered over by “T-City” in Las Vegas.

Many high-profile fights could await him there, and it could also be a much shorter path to one last title run if he decided he could cut the weight.

He’s fallen short in two featherweight title fights and had two more fall apart due to injury, but a final 145-pound push isn’t out of the question for one of the UFC’s most consistently excellent fighters of all-time.

Where, or whom, do you think Edgar should fight next?

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Frankie Edgar’s Coach Releases Statement On KO Loss To Brian Ortega

Frankie Edgar was finished for the first time at UFC 222 on Saturday night after an elbow and a vicious uppercut by Brian Ortega ended the co-main event in the first round. The finish came just over three minutes into the frame and sent shockwaves throughout the collective mixed martial arts universe. After taking a […]

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Frankie Edgar was finished for the first time at UFC 222 on Saturday night after an elbow and a vicious uppercut by Brian Ortega ended the co-main event in the first round.

The finish came just over three minutes into the frame and sent shockwaves throughout the collective mixed martial arts universe.

After taking a huge risk in facing Ortega and suffering a vicious loss, the former UFC lightweight champion’s coach took to social media to issue a statement and lift Edgar up after what amounts to be the lowest point of his storied career:

“You’re beyond blessed in your life if you’ve had the privilege to meet one great person in your life. I’m talking about someone who impacts just thousands around him and changes and impacts your life for the better. It’s been an absolute miracle in my almost 50 years to have had two of these amazing men in my life. My father in law Pino and my little brother Frankie Edgar.”

You're beyond Blessed in your life if you've had the privilege to meet 1 great person in your life. I'm talking about someone who impacts just thousands around him and changes and impacts your life for the better. It been a absolute miracle in my almost 50 years to have had 2 of these amazing men in my life. My father in law Pino and my little brother @frankieedgar. Even though I'm a lot older than Frankie, he has taught me way more lessons in life than I could have ever taught him. Besides being an incredible son, brother, father, husband, friend, general, mentor, champion, teammate and example to millions, I can't thank him enough for being the most incredible example to my son for the past 13 years. So hard in these times to find a great role model for your kids these days and I've been Blessed beyond belief to have had this man be an example to what is dearest to me. Forget this fight stuff there's way bigger things in life and it's a GUARANTEE FE will be back stronger than ever!! Congratulations to Brian Ortega and his amazing team. Brian's awesome example to kids. Thanks so much to everyone for always giving love and respect to our Champ. ??

A post shared by Mark Henry (@mark_henry7) on

Henry has been an integral part of Edgar’s team for the majority of his UFC career, winning the lightweight title from BJ Penn back in 2010.

Edgar was initially supposed to fight featherweight champion Max Holloway, but opted to take the Ortega fight when the champion became unavailable.

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Watch Sean O’Malley Get Blazed After UFC 222 Victory

Rising UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley picked up a hard-fought win over Andre Soukhamthath on the main card of last weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it didn’t come without a price. Dominating Soukhamthath in the stand-up game for the better part of the first two rounds, […]

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Rising UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley picked up a hard-fought win over Andre Soukhamthath on the main card of last weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it didn’t come without a price.

Dominating Soukhamthath in the stand-up game for the better part of the first two rounds, “Sugar” appeared on his way to finishing the bout with a varied offense of pinpoint strikes.

But in the third round, O’Malley injured his leg throwing a kick and was unable to even stand, a fact that apparently went over Soukhamthath’s head as he inexplicably ground O’Malley and laid on him until the fight ended. Because of the glaring mistake, O’Malley won by unanimous decision and promptly gave a unique post-fight interview to Joe Rogan.

In it, O’Malley said the injury was nothing that a little ‘medicine’ at his after party couldn’t fix, and he may have been referencing the custom strain of marijuana that he discussed in the week leading up to UFC 222. Either way, O’Malley was far from shy about chronicling his own medicating, even with a cast on his leg, at his after party.

He released a video online via Fancy Combat enjoying some sizable marijuana cigarettes, some healthy snacks, and even a golden weed boxing glove not unlike the one once gifted to Nate Diaz.

Check it out right here:

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