The Power of the UFC
By Eddie Sanchez
The UFC tends to represent the Golden State Warriors theme, Strength in Numbers, extremely well. Where most high profile boxing cards are top heavy with an exciting main event, and not much else for the casual fan, the UFC stacks their billings to offer world class level fighting for free on ESPN+ before the actual PPV starts.
Because they live by this mindset, they are able to weather the unfortunate injury storms. The next two PPVs, UFC 255 & 256 have seen their respective main events decimated.
UFC 255, on November 21, was originally scheduled to see Cody Garbrandt drop down in weight to challenge the Flyweight champion, Deiveson Figueiredo. Unfortunately, my guy Cody got dealt a devastating blow, which he detailed to MMA Fighting.
“I wanted to let everybody know I have a distal bicep grade 3 tear,” Garbrandt said during an Instagram live session. “I had COVID, I tested positive for COVID a few months ago and I wasn’t able to train MMA for about a month and a half. I kept my weight low, that’s why I’ve been cycling a lot just to keep the conditioning up.”
“I got back into MMA training a little over two weeks ago so I just thought my bicep was sore. Just from training, hadn’t been doing MMA, been cycling a lot, doing strength and conditioning. Keeping my diet really clean and healthy. Been waking up at 141, so my weight’s been good.”
Personal feelings aside, this is terrible for Cody. He was coming off of a highlight-level KO against Raphael Assuncao and was looking to build off that momentum. Now, UFC 255 is headlined with Alex Perez (#4 contender) as his replacement.
Perez is a very talented fighter, but it’s clear that the original intrigue was surrounding Cody’s name power versus the incumbent champ. Injuries are part of the sport however, and because the UFC prepares for this, the upcoming PPV is still extremely intriguing top-to-bottom.
The co-main, Valentina Schevchenko-Jennifer Maia, will be an excellent fight and personally, it’s the one I am most excited for. Valentina is fucking awesome and I can’t wait to see her fight.
You also have fighters like Mike Perry, Shogun and Cynthia Calvillo filling out the card, which will be an excellent mix of excitement for the fans. Although injuries robbed us for some storylines, the action will not disappoint.
While the UFC fans are extremely loyal, the buying power will surely be tested with UFC 256 following on December 12. Fans may be willing to suck it up and pay for one injury riddled card, but two back-to-back? This will be interesting to see.
UFC 256 was originally going to be an action packed double header with the Men’s Middleweight Championship, Usman-Burns, as well as the Women’s Featherweight Championship, Nunes-Anderson.
Well life had other plans, Usman-Burns was taken off the card early last month with Usman citing a lack of time permitted to recover from injuries he had suffered. Despite that, the card was still looking strong, as it will also feature Petr Yan’s Bantamweight title defense against Aljamain Sterling.
Unfortunately, Amanda Nunes has recently called off her bout because of undisclosed injuries. The original main and co-main events are off the card, and it looks like the UFC will have Yan and Sterling carry the weight.
Ronaldo Souza and Junior Dos Santos will do their part to help, but with respect to those men, they aren’t likely to move the needle much (although their matchups should be exciting).
Twitter was speculating that McGregor-Poirier could be pushed to that December 12th date, but we have since seen the confirmation that the rematch will take place in January as originally planned.
Could we see another high profile bout added to the card? Paul Felder has agreed to fight Rafael Dos Anjos in the upcoming UFC Fight Night on 5 days rest, so anything is possible. The reason that matchup is so intriguing for this exercise is that Michael Chandler was originally asked to take Felder’s newfound space, but he declined.
Perhaps this could be an opportunity for the former Bellator champion to make his UFC debut and save the PPV card. That’s likely wishful thinking considering if that type of arrangement was currently in the works, it would be much more heavily rumored and he would likely be more vocal with the proposition.
For personal interest’s sake, I actually would like to see the card stay as currently constructed. If it does, and Yan-Sterling continues as the lead, it will serve as a strong barometer for the UFC’s true drawing power in the combat sports PPV world.
Boxing and MMA, UFC in particular, fans bicker back and forth on Twitter constantly. These threads tend to be the longest around PPV dates and the two fanbases argue over purchase numbers, PPV prices and reasons for why each other sucks.
I’m interested in the possibility that this card as currently constructed, could still eclipse the reported purchases of the Jermall and Jermell Charlo September PPV double-header, despite the UFC having two main events cancelled.
The Charlo brothers made their PPV debut headlining a card with six title fights. Even when you consider the copious amounts of titles in boxing, that is as stacked of a card as you will find. And… it sold between 100,000-120,000 PPV purchases. The promoters and TV execs claimed that this met their internal revenue goals, but it is hard for me to imagine UFC 256 not meeting this number.
This opinion comes with no hate, but based on recent UFC PPVs, it seems that there is a much higher floor with their fan base compared to boxing, unless we are talking Manny Pacquiao, Tyson Fury or Canelo Alvarez (he is a free agent now btw!). This theory will surely be tested if it continues as currently planned, but I am the type of fan who nerds out on the business side of things. My Google search history will be “UFC 256 PPV purchases” the night of December 12th, until they are released.
While the fan in me is sad to not see the three high profile bouts we were originally hoping for in the next two PPV cards, I will definitely still tune in and contribute towards that total-buy ticker.
How do you feel about the upcoming UFC PPV cards?
Do you agree that the fanbase is generally more loyal regarding PPV purchases to the current fans of boxing?
