UFC 103: 400,000 buys (Meltzer)

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reports in his latest newsletter that UFC 103 managed to reach the 400,000 plateau.

At press time, the numbers for the 9/19 battle look like the Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight did 1 million buys in North America, putting it No. 2 on the list of shows this year, while UFC 103, headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort, looks to have done 400,000 buys.

 

The boxing match drew 525,000 on cable and 475,000 buys on satellite, according to HBO, for a total gross of $52 million. UFC 100 has been reported at 1.72 million buys (our estimate was 1.6 million), which would be, with lower prices, somewhere around $77.3 million (actually more if a significant number bought it at the higher HD pricing).

Payout Perspective:

 There are several interesting notes to take away from this buyrate figure:

• UFC 103 was considered to be a potential candidate for the smallest UFC PPV event of the year considering its headliners, the strength of the overall fight card, and its external operating environment. Dana White has every right to be happy with 400k.

• The estimate of 400,000 buys would now suggest – in tandem with 102’s estimated 435,000 – that the UFC’s new base line for North American shows is probably at the 400,000 buyrate plateau. European shows like 93 and 99 doing 350-375k aren’t far off, either. 

• Rich Franklin had never headlined a card that sold more than 375,000 PPVs. His success as the top draw for 103 i’s likely a combination of the UFC’s increasing popularity and the push he’s received this year (he’s headlined three shows in 2009: UFC 93, 99, and now 103). All the more impressive is that he’s done his best figures without a belt. He’s being pushed as a member of that ultra tough UFC vanguard of yesteryear and his gatekeeper role seemingly hasn’t held him back.

• Lastly, you may have noticed that the figure increased over the early estimate of last week (400,000 up from 375,000). The estimates tend to fluctuate based on the five or six metrics that Meltzer has access to.

Note: Meltzer is an honest and trustworthy source of information – someone who has built up his contacts within the cable industry over a number of years – while not 100% accurate, he’s almost always within range.

I’d again encourage everyone to sign up for his wrestling/mma newsletter, because there are a ton of gems included on a weekly basis.

Nelson. Kimbo. Belly. Beard. TUF 10 talkback thread

Tonight's episode of "The Ultimate Fighter" has the makings of being one of the highest-rated episodes of the show's ten seasons. It is, no doubt, the most-hyped episode of the show's run. We know you'll want to talk about this episode, so here is your spot. The comments section is open on this post for you guys and gals to make your predictions, discuss the fight, and guess the effects that this fight will have on the show. Later on, Cagewriter will have a fight recap and post from TUF cast member, Zak Jensen. 

Nickname for Duffee? This one stinks but the illustration is dynamite

You gotta love the Todd Duffee/Matt Hughes fanboys over at Fightlinker. Duffee exploded onto the UFC scene with his seven second destruction of Tim Hague at UFC 103. He's an imposing figure at 6-foot-3, 250 pounds, almost superhero-like. But he doesn't have a nasty nickname yet. Fightlinker is suggesting "The Duffman". What do you think? By the way, who is that guy with the mohawk in the cartoon? Love the puffy shirt!

Big tip of the hat to scritchandscratch.com. Nice stuff.

ESPN The Magazine’s ‘The Body’ issue: Who doesn’t belong?

ESPN The Magazine is replicating the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue with a smutty issue of its own. Nice idea. Teenage boys and tools like myself can't enough ammo lying around the house. One problem with ESPN The Magazine's "The Body" issue, though. What's the deal with the inclusion of old and fat guys? We don't need to see Joba Chamberlain unless he's in a wrestling singlet a la The Big Show from WWE. And do we really need to make ourselves feel horrible by checking out the physique of 50-year-old NASCAR driver Mark Martin? 

The rest of the list is a bit befuddling:

NFL: Adrian Peterson
MLB: Chamberlain, Nelson Cruz
Tennis: James Blake
NBA: Dwight Howard
NHL: Zdeno Chara, Bill Guerin
NASCAR: Carl Edwards, Martin
LPGA: Christina Kim
MMA: Gina Carano, Randy Couture
Horse racing: Alexis Solis
Surfing: Claire Bevilacqua, Laird Hamilton
Boxing: Manny Pacquio
Softball: Jessica Mendoza

The issue is more about featuring different body parts, which we're guessing is why UFC veteran Couture and his cauliflower ear is of interest. We won't speculate about the others. 

Dana White says ‘Rampage’ Jackson is fighting again

The calm Dana White has won out. The UFC president isn't going ballistic over Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's hissy fit and blog posts claiming that he's done fighting. White again took the high road this morning on the Opie and Anthony Show (1:25 mark):

"Rampage, has he left? No. He's mad at me. We've gone back and forth with this movie thing, Rampage will fight."

White says he'll figure it out, expect that the rumored Rashad Evans-Thiago Silva fight to be dumped with Evans and Jackson meeting in the cage may come in February or March.

MMA Marketplace: Latest round of fighter dolls, er, collectibles

Round 5 figurines released their latest collection of dolls action figures. This particular set will allow you to recreate some famous fights, change the outcome, or make up the ones you want to see but never will. You want to see Rashad Evans knock out Lyoto Machida, or control the winner of the upcoming fight between Kenny Florian and Clay Guida? Make it happen on your kitchen table! You can even make the fight MMA fans dream of, Anderson Silva vs. GSP, by purchasing Silva's doll. The new dolls will be available early in 2010. 

Blogger makes valiant effort at getting a ring girl for a prom date

You have to give MMA Religion's Conner Cordova credit for chutzpah. He wants UFC Octagon Girl Arianny Celeste to go to his prom with him, and he has no problem making a fool of himself to grab her attention. He even enlists the help of BJJ coach Eddie Bravo, who tells Arianny, "Look, we know you don't have a boyfriend."

Conner did manage to get Arianny's attention, as she tweeted, "Stalker or sweet? You be the judge." What do you think, dear readers? Should Arianny go prom dress shopping or try to get a restraining order? 

Transcript of Dana White September 2009 interview with Sherdog

ESPN placed a 5 1/2 minute clip on their Youtube channel on Wednesday of a recent interview Greg Savage of Sherdog.com did with UFC President Dana White. Here are quotes from that interview:

On the create vision driving UFC: “The great thing is is that I believe that we have the right road map and you know I think we have the right vision on where we want to take this thing and since day one we’ve never veered off, as bad as it got there’s crazy shit we could have done and we never did it, we stayed true to the sport, knew what we wanted to do, and we were really going to make it the right way or not at all.”

On getting into PR wars: “There’s times when we, you know, I get into verbal beefs with guys whether it’s Floyd Mayweather or (Bob) Arum or whoever it may be, you know, we go back and forth and take digs at each other but yeah I mean I think part of the reason that we done what we’ve done and everything’s happened the way it is is that I do believe in this shit. I believe in Mixed Martial Arts, I believe in the UFC, I believe in all the athletes and yeah, that’s why, you know, I say what I say. I call it like I see it. If I fucking think Anderson (Silva) didn’t fight up to his potential, I’ll say it. You know, um, I just, I don’t believe in bullshit.”

What made the UFC explode in popularity? “The Ultimate Fighter saved the sport and it’s not even like, seriously, it’s not even really The Ultimate Fighter, I say this all the time, it was Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. We didn’t have a deal going into that fight. And then Diego (Sanchez) goes in and blows right through Kenny (Florian) in two seconds and then Forrest and Stephan come out and put on that performance that they put on, it was literally that fight, I don’t even know if I’d say The Ultimate Fighter as much as I’d say that fight saved everything.”

On talent relations and fighter salaries: “Everybody wants more money, it’s human nature, and we can handle all that stuff behind closed doors. It doesn’t need to be dragged out into the public because I truly believe, I used to say this five fucking years ago, now today in the economic situation we’re in where people are losing their homes, their cars, and this and that and you’re going to hear some fucking athlete crying about, “I only made 5 millon bucks last year and I only made this and that,” not good. You know what I mean? Part of the reason I stopped doing my video blogs, too. And the reality is these guys get paid a lot of money. These fighters make a lot of money and some of these guys make more money than guys do in other sports and one of the reasons I’ve tried to keep it private, too, is because I had a lot of competition coming at me, trying to figure out this model and how I do it and how I make it work and even at times Lorenzo (Fertitta) said, “Dude, let’s make this public, let’s stop doing this,” and hmm, nope, keep it quiet, it’s nobody’s fucking business what these guys are making.”

On having to scramble to book main events for so many fight cards: “It’s a business, it’s just a business. You’re going to have the one thing that we’re lucky is that as many shows as we do that we have so many people that can headline fights. And, no, it’s just, it’s part of running a business.”

“Absolutely, you know how many fucking fights that we put on a year? But that’s the business, it’s been like that since day one, it was like that when I was putting on five fights a year, you know? It’s always going to be a problem, You’re going to have guys that are injured, you know, it’s always an issue.”

On being a manager versus being a promoter: “Well, I don’t know if when I was a manager I was confrontational, I’m way more confrontational now than I was then, I think that you know back then I was just I was trying to get what I thought my guys deserved.”

On when White would ever consider leaving the MMA business: “People say that to me all the time, you know, there’s no way you could fucking leave this, there’s no way you can do it. Trust me, whatever I set my mind to do, I can do and when the day comes when I know that I’m done doing this, I’ll walk away. You know, I see people say, people think I’m a fucking egomaniac and you know I want to be in the front of this and I want to do this and that, the reality is that it’s my job. I’m a fucking fight promoter. What am I supposed to do, hide? Hide in a fucking office somewhere and not talk to anybody ever? No, I’m the one constant guy that’s always out there telling you what’s next and what’s happening and I’m the President of the company that’s telling you what’s going to happen next with this business. But when the day, when I feel like I’ve done everything that I set out to do, I will walk away happily, believe me.”

On the size of UFC as a company in comparison to other promoters and their operations: “It’s grown, you know, it’s gotten so much bigger and it’s so much more than what it was. You know, we’re more than just a fight company, we’re not like you know, most of these boxing promoters, when you think of a traditional boxing promoter, they’re a fucking secretary and a FAX machine, you know? This thing is, we’re more like a media company, you know, we own tons of content, we have the biggest fight library in the world, we’re the biggest fight promoters in the history of the fucking fight game, and you know this thing, we have huge global plans for this thing and yeah, it’s a different role than it was back in 2003.”

What motivates Dana White to continue doing what he does: “The reality is that I fucking love it, I get up every day and go at it like it’s you know there’s nothing else in the world, I love this sport, I love the UFC, and most of the guys in it.”

Roy Nelson prepares to take over as ace of TUF

Former IFL champion Roy Nelson took some heat for signing up to become a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter this season. Now, his decision looks like it is about to pay off in an enormous way. Roy Nelson and Kimbo Slice are involved in the biggest “Super Fight” in the history of The Ultimate Fighter. There’s no amount of money any promoter outside of UFC could have spent to built up Nelson in this kind of perfect fashion.

Amongst hardcore MMA fans, Roy Nelson is widely respected. Amongst casual fans seeing Nelson for the first time, the reaction is quite different.

“The ignorant fans are like, who is this guy?” said Nelson in an interview last week with Steve Cofield of ESPN Radio in Las Vegas. “I’m assuming that guy just turned on the TV just now.”

Nelson has a completely different look than most heavyweight fighters. He’s not a bodybuilder and his looks are amazing deceiving for his Top 10-quality skill set. He is, in many ways, the antithesis of Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, and the newer recruits in UFC’s Heavyweight division. Which is why Nelson makes the perfect foil for Kimbo Slice on The Ultimate Fighter.

For the educated MMA fan, watching Nelson get passed over by both Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans during the team selection process was stunning. Nelson was picked towards the end of the process as opposed to the beginning. Nelson ended up on Rashad’s team and found himself on a high-level team, whereas Jackson’s team was full of ex-NFL players with size.

“The one thing about you go over Rampage’s whole team I would put Kimbo as one of you know top guys on their team,” exclaimed Big Country Nelson. “So, I mean, just off of the guys he picked mostly NFL players versus like MMA fighters, he basically picked size. If you were taller than him, he picked you. That’s pretty much I think what he really wanted.”

Nelson finds himself in a very unique position on the show. He’s affable and personable, yet can cut a promo when needed. He doesn’t look like the typical UFC musclehead fighter, yet he can compete with the best in the world. When compared to Kimbo Slice, the contrast is so stark that it’s remarkable. And compared to the two head coaches, Nelson sticks out like a sore thumb.

Nelson finds his role gaining big steam on the show and that will play a more critical role now that Quinton Jackson has movie aspirations and is having work-related issues with UFC management.

“Well, it’s either some type of like publicity stunt or he’s just getting paid you know a lot more outside of you know MMA, which you know you can’t be mad at a man you know that’s trying to feed his family even though it’s a lot of money for a lot of kids and stuff,” said Nelson who was trying to rationalize what is going on between Jackson and Dana White. “For the most part you can’t you can’t be mad at him because I mean it works both ways because the UFC wants to make as much money as they want to so you know you just got to do what’s best for you.”

“I think it’s kind of more like a Tito type of ploy, you know like let me try to squeeze as much as I possibly can out of you before you know which you know sometimes is a good thing and sometimes is not a good thing when it comes to Dana White.”

A cursory look at the history of fighters who have opposed Dana White in terms of business relations is not good. Randy Couture put up a fight and quit. Tito Ortiz put up a bluff and came back to Zuffa. The list goes on and on of fighters who get into a war with Dana White and not only lose the financial battle but lose the PR war in a big way.

Nelson, who has been on the verbal end of some shots from both Jackson and Evans, says that Rampage is a fighter who can dish out the talk but can’t take the heat when fired back at him.

“You know that’s totally true because on the show any time he tried to dish it and as soon as you try to give it back he kind of shut up real quick so he’s a disser but he can’t take it. He did that to me on the first day by like calling me fat and I’m like, well do you want to get beat up by the fat guy? And then that was the last I heard of anything about being fat, so it’s kind of all depends how you deal with it. I know how Quinton is when it comes to stuff like that, he’s like a kid, he’s going to push it as far as he possibly can before you break him.”

Given the fact that there are several fighters on this season’s Ultimate Fighter show with past experience, the dynamic has changed in terms of the coaches being able to bully around some of the contestants.

“Yeah, you know I think the biggest thing on this cast was there was a lot more veterans so it’s like you know like when you get bullied by like some of the coaches like you know seen in the past a lot of you know kids, even the other cast members would you know kind of take it but now since it’s more of a veteran and there’s a lot more veterans out there, they’re like, you know I can fight too, you know like let’s go!”

Nelson, who no doubt will take a financial hit in the short-term with a restrictive Ultimate Fighter contract, found his golden ticket when he got booked in a fight against Kimbo Slice. One of the most-viewed fights in UFC history and one of the most anticipated. Nelson is quickly becoming a star before our eyes, thanks to the vaunted UFC promotional machine. While Quinton Jackson is a superstar and hard to replace, Roy Nelson finds himself in a unique position to step up and try to fill the avoid in the future in the UFC by becoming a charismatic Heavyweight star.

Study Reveals Increased Dementia Risk in NFL Players

The New York Times reports that a study commissioned by the National Football League shows memory-related diseases appear more often in the league’s former players than in the population at large:

All rates appear small. But if they are accurate, they would have arresting real-life effects when applied across a population as large as living N.F.L. retirees. A normal rate of cognitive disease among N.F.L. retirees age 50 and above (of whom there are about 4,000) would result in 48 of them having the condition; the rate in the Michigan study would lead to 244. Among retirees ages 30 through 49 (of whom there are about 3,000), the normal rate cited by the Michigan researchers would yield about 3 men experiencing problems; the rate reported among N.F.L. retirees leads to an estimate of 57.

So the Michigan findings suggest that although 50 N.F.L. retirees would be expected to have dementia or memory-related disease, the actual number could be more like 300. This would not prove causation in any individual case, but it would support a connection between pro football careers and heightened prevalence of later-life cognitive decline that the league has long disputed.

Payout Perspective:

Here’s a study confirming what has really become obvious over the last several years:  repeated concussions seem directly related to the onset of early dementia.

Former WWE wrestler (and Harvard University graduate) Christopher Nowinski has been at the vanguard of this issue since having seen his own career end early due to multiple concussions; having an NFL-commissioned study as support for his cause could help at least in terms of visibility of the issue.  There was significant media coverage of the issue in the months following the Chris Benoit double murder-suicide in 2007 (Benoit, 40-years-old at the time, had a brain — due to its repeatedly being concussed —  akin to an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient’s), but coverage has waned as that tragedy faded from public memory.

The study’s implications for our sport are clear.  Although I believe Mixed Martial Arts is considerably safer than boxing (in large part because fights end in MMA as opposed to how boxing permits an already brain-injured fighter approximately ten seconds to recover in order to continue receiving punishment to the brain), KO’s are a big part of the game, and so therefore are concussions.

The best the sport can do is to create an environment making an inherently risky activity such as fighting as low-risk as possible.  That means giving serious attention — at all levels, from promotion to commission — to the issue.

If in the end that means forced retirements for (and I’m just pulling a name, not a random one by any means, but just by way of example) someone like Sean Salmon, a fighter who has suffered what would appear to be more than his fair share of devastating knockouts, it’s preferable to the inevitable tragedies (perhaps not at a Benoit level, but there would be more homicides, suicides and the like) the coming decades could bring.

The MMA world needs to heed these studies.

Next Page »