Two of the more intriguing current champions in the UFC will both be in action next month at UFC 215. The event features Demetrious Johnson defending his flyweight title against Ray Borg as “Mighty Mouse” chases history. With a win over Borg, Johnson will pass Anderson Silva for most consecutive title defenses in the promotion […]
Two of the more intriguing current champions in the UFC will both be in action next month at UFC 215. The event features Demetrious Johnson defending his flyweight title against Ray Borg as “Mighty Mouse” chases history. With a win over Borg, Johnson will pass Anderson Silva for most consecutive title defenses in the promotion […]
UFC 214 was a grand event, but unfortunately, the combat sports world now begins its descent into the madness that is Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Forgotten in that is UFC 215. The full card stands as follows:
Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Bo…
UFC 214 was a grand event, but unfortunately, the combat sports world now begins its descent into the madness that is Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Forgotten in that is UFC 215. The full card stands as follows:
Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg
Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko
Junior dos Santos vs. Francis Ngannou
Neil Magny vs. Rafael dos Anjos
Jeremy Stephens vs. Gilbert Melendez
Henry Cejudo vs. Wilson Reis
Ilir Latifi vs. Tyson Pedro
Sara McMann vs. Ketlen Vieira
Gavin Tucker vs. Rick Glenn
Ashlee Evans-Smith vs. Sarah Moras
Arjan Bhullar vs. Luis Henrique
Kajan Johnson vs. Adriano Martins
Mitch Clarke vs. Alex White
The UFC seems bearish on how well the card can perform when millions are likely to throw down $100 for the bonkers boxing match, and as such, it has packed the card with fights that carry weight with the hardcore fans.
Atop the card is the flyweight title fight between Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg, a bout that could see Johnson shatter the seemingly unbreakable record for consecutive UFC title defenses. The co-main event is no slouch either, as Amanda Nunes rematches Valentina Shevchenko with the women’s bantamweight title on the line. The undercard, meanwhile, is chock-full of former champions and contenders looking to gain momentum for another shot at gold.
The card is more than a month away, set for September 9, but it’s worth taking a good look at it in advance, just as a reminder of what the UFC has in store for fans after the circus on August 26.
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.
The upcoming UFC 214 pay-per-view event is coming together nicely, as news has arrived that the card will feature two title fights from Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday, September 9. TSN Sports confirmed that dominant flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will headline the card against No. 3-ranked challenger Ray Borg, while women’s bantamweight champion Amanda […]
The upcoming UFC 214 pay-per-view event is coming together nicely, as news has arrived that the card will feature two title fights from Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday, September 9.
TSN Sports confirmed that dominant flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will headline the card against No. 3-ranked challenger Ray Borg, while women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will meet Valentina Shevchenko in the co-main event. Nunes and Shevchenko were supposed to fight in the main event of July 8’s UFC 213, but chronic sinusitis forced “The Lioness” out of the bout until it was recently rescheduled.
UFC President Dana White has said Nunes would not headline the card featuring here rescheduled rematch with “Bullet,” and this time, he’s apparently kept his word after saying the same thing about Jon Jones after he was unceremoniously removed from his UFC 200 main event against Daniel Cormier last year, but booking the same fight for the main event of July 29’s UFC 214 anyway.
White said he had smoothed things over with Nunes regardless:
“(Nunes) and I talked, she was a little upset about the situation that I said she was medically cleared to fight,” said White. “Her and I talked about it and I think we’re in a good place now.”
Mark J. Rebilas for USA TODAY Sports
There’s also some controversy surrounding Johnson’s next fight after the consensus pound-for-pound best fighter in the world refused to fight former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw for the 125-pound belt in his next fight, in which he will attempt to break Anderson Silva’s record for most UFC title defenses.
White expressed dismay at not being able to book that fight:
“It’s unfortunate, I think (Johnson vs. Dillashaw) would have been a great title fight,” White told TSN. “It would have been a fight that a lot of people would have wanted to see, but it is what it is.”
In any case, two title fights are headed for September’s UFC 215, and on paper, it definitely presents an interesting event with the world’s most dominant fighter facing a young, up-and-coming contender who is one of the very few legit challengers in his division, while Nunes and Shevchenko will rematch barring any setbacks in a fight that will certainly showcase the evolution of the women’s bantamweight division in the years post-Ronda Rousey.
Photo by Ron Chenoy for USA TODAY Sports
But there’s a few other aspects of the event that don’t offer as much promise, and that’s the fact that the UFC has chosen to book Johnson in a pay-per-view event the day numbers arrived that UFC 213, which was set to ironically feature Nunes, did some of the lowest pay-per-view buys in a decade, with “Mighty Mouse’s” PPV title defenses the only card selling so dismally.
In a month sure to feature the hangover of the all-out circus that Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor will most definitely present on August 26, perhaps the UFC thought they should save bigger names able to carry a pay-per-view card for more anticipated events later in the year.
Thus far this year, however, not many UFC stars have proven they can do that. Will Johnson and Nunes combine to help lift the UFC out of the ratings gutter, or will the card deliver the same low ratings they’ve traditionally delivered?
When July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas lost its Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko main event the day of the fight, it seemed like the International Fight Week-ending card that with much of the wind taken out of its sails, was doomed to bring in a low pay-per-view buyrate . And according to recently […]
When July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas lost its Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko main event the day of the fight, it seemed like the International Fight Week-ending card that with much of the wind taken out of its sails, was doomed to bring in a low pay-per-view buyrate .
And according to recently released estimates, that’s true. A report from MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer put the usually successful midsummer card’s buys at a measly 125,000-150,000, continuing a trend of lackluster-at-best sales for the UFC in the new WME-IMG era. There has yet to be a single UFC pay-per-view event that drew a significant amount of buzz and buys yet this year, compared to last year when numerous cards surpassed the coveted one million-plus buy threshold.
It’s hard to argue that UFC 213 should have or could have done much better, however, as the card lost its original Cody Garbrandt vs. TJ Dillashaw bantamweight tile headliner, and an anticipated contest between Robbie Lawler and Donald Cerrone was moved to UFC 214 on July 29. The late replacement Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero fight for the interim middleweight title was a great fight to be certain; but at that point many fans – and all casual ones – had clearly been turned off by the dissipating event.
The low numbers put the card on par with the worst-selling UFC pay-per-views of all-time, joining the cards that dominant but low-selling flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson headlined. Obviously UFC 213 was never going to outsell last year’s UFC 200, even though that historical event also lost its main event right before it was scheduled to take place. Nunes headlined the card opposite former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate, but the real attraction seemed to be Brock Lesnar’s return against Mark Hunt.
Last year seems like ancient history for the UFC, however, and the while the promotion is expected to bounce back with big numbers at next week’s UFC 214 from Anaheim, which features the long-overdue Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones rematch, is on point to be by far the best pay-per-view of this year with three title fights. And of course Conor McGregor will box Floyd Mayweather in their monstrous August 26 showdown that is expected to bring upwards of five million buys and countless eyeballs to MMA. It’s not solely a UFC fight though, as SHOWTIME Sports is producing the majority of it.
Regardless of the outcome, this cant be what WME-IMG envisioned when they paid $4.2 billion for the promotion during the height of McGregor and Ronda Rousey’s drawing power.
2017 is quickly getting away from the new owners, and even with a potential blockbuster like UFC 214 waiting in the immediate future, they’re going to need something special to bring the overall year out of the slums and back into the penthouse the UFC enjoyed last year.
And as recent trends in MMA has shown, that will probably be up to the return – or lack of – from one infamous Irishman. Megastars tend to sell huge these days, and the rest of the roster seems to draw increasingly concerning and dismal buyrates.
The anticipated UFC women’s bantamweight title bout that fans were cheated out of at this month’s UFC 213 has reportedly been rescheduled for the previously speculated-upon date. UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will reportedly take on top contender Valentina Shevchenko at September 9’s UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada according to […]
The anticipated UFC women’s bantamweight title bout that fans were cheated out of at this month’s UFC 213 has reportedly been rescheduled for the previously speculated-upon date.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will reportedly take on top contender Valentina Shevchenko at September 9’s UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada according to a report from Brazilian outlet Globo.
The two longtime competitors were set to headline July 8’s UFC 213, the pay-per-view (PPV) which capped off the UFC’s traditional International Fight Week, but a now-infamous last-minute withdrawal from Nunes due to illness meant the interim middleweight championship bout between Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero became the destroyed card’s new feature bout.
Nunes and Shevchenko met once before, with “The Lioness” outlasting “Bullet” two rounds to one at March 2016’s UFC 196, a fight which many believe the Russian-born kickboxing specialist would have won were it scheduled for five championship rounds.
Shevchenko will get her chance at making that discussion a reality when she meets Nunes for five rounds on September 9 from Edmonton, but if these two elite fighters’ recent results are any indication, it may not last that long. Nunes recently finished all-time great former UFC champion Ronda Rousey in 48 seconds at last December’s UFC 207, while Shevchenko submitted top-ranked contender Julianna Pena with a picturesque armbar in the main event of UFC on FOX 22 in late January, taking on the touted wrestler in her area of expertise.
If and when the bout is confirmed by the UFC as expected, Nunes vs. Shevchenko II will join the previously announced Junior dos Santos vs. Francis Ngannou heavyweight bout and a featherweight affair between Gilbert Melendez and Jeremy Stephens.
