MMA Thread

Goatface

Goatface

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UFC Vegas 109
will air live on ESPN and ESPN+ on Saturday.
Prelims begin at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT
Main card kicks off at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

Roman Dolidze (185.5) vs. Anthony Hernandez (186)
Steve Erceg (135.5) vs. Ode Osbourne (135.5)
Angela Hill (116) vs. Iasmin Lucindo (115)
Andre Fili (146) vs. Christian Rodriguez (146)
Miles Johns (136) vs. Jean Matsumoto (136)
Eryk Anders (186) vs. Christian Leroy Duncan (185)
Raffael Cerqueira (203) vs. Julius Walker (206)
Toshiomi Kazama (136) vs. Elijah Smith (136)
Priscila Cachoeira (134) vs. Joselyne Edwards (136)
Uros Medic (171) vs. Gilbert Urbina (171)
Gabriella Fernandes (125.5) vs. Julija Stoliarenko (126)
Cody Brundage (202.5) vs. Eric McConico (204.5)

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3 fighters, Anthony Hernandez, Julija Stoliarenko, and Joselyn Edwards all missed weight by .25 to .5 on their first attempts, were given an extra hour and made weight.
 
Goatface

Goatface

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Report: UFC suffered ‘lower average buys per event’ after ‘already bad PPV numbers got worse’​

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is quickly becoming the star of the TKO portfolio.

Not long after signing a billion-dollar deal with Netflix, the world’s preeminent professional wrestling promotion announced a landmark agreement with ESPN, reportedly worth $325 million per year for the next five years. As for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which already streams pay-per-view (PPV) events and other live programming on ESPN, there was nothing to celebrate in Disney’s latest earnings report.

Perhaps “middling” PPV cards and “platform meltdowns” are to blame.

“ESPN paid UFC less money in [fiscal] Q3 of 2025 than Q3 of 2024 because of lower average buys per event,” analyst Robert Joyner wrote on social media. “Translation: already bad PPV numbers got worse, year over year. UFC needs a superstar for these numbers to recover, with none in sight.”

ESPN recently overhauled its digital platforms to create a new (and pricier) streaming service.

UFC’s existing deal with the “worldwide leader in sports,” which has often been compared to a “bad marriage” with finger pointing in both directions, is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The promotion is actively negotiating with multiple broadcast partners, though nothing is official at this time.

ESPN has raised the UFC PPV price multiple times over the last few years.

The digital landscape, at least as it pertains to combat sports programming, could look entirely different by early 2026 as fans struggle to keep pace. In addition to PPV performance, ticket sales have also been scrutinized for underperforming in 2025, based on a perceived lack of star power.

UFC returns to the PPV market with UFC 319: “Du Plessis vs. Chimaev” later this month.

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my understanding of the ufc/espn deal, they pay $300m per year, that includes xx ppvs at xxx,xxx number of buys, if they go over that, ufc gets extra, but it doesn't go below that number. pretty sure the number hasn't been leaked, estimates are between 300k to 500k. guess that is mainly from 2016 avg was 600k buys and 2017 avg was 350k buys.

according to chatgpt, this is based totally on estimates/guesses. with the avg being under 500k would lead to think the set number is 300k-400k.

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jayrebb

jayrebb

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Poatan was the biggest up and coming draw they had prior to the Ankalaev loss. Not sure that will be the case going forward.

Not a new problem. Even in the late 2000's people used to criticize the UFC for feeding stars to wrestlers.

But sometimes there is just no option to protect a guy. 205 was cleaned out.

Just checking the rankings and cringing at Roundtree top 4, Jan falling to 5, exposed Jiri rank 2. Ankalaev was undeniable.

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Kirun

Kirun

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Smart. Just doing away with PPV entirely will work well for them. I was willing to shell out $20/PPV before and have been bitching about it for years, but this works out even better. I already have Paramount+ for Champion's League Football.
 
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Goatface

Goatface

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i don't see thing if there will be a difference between Paramount+ Premium and Essential. even with Premium it says live events have ads.
you can get the Essential plan free with Wal-mart plus often for $50 per year. verified military can get 50% all plans too.
 
Fight

Fight

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I was hoping for Netflix or Amazon Prime, but at least someone other than ESPN won the bid.

It will be interesting to see if the quality of numbered UFC events goes down. Dana was always incentivized to stack those cards as much as possible to sell ppv buys and now that incentive is gone.
 
Kirun

Kirun

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It sucks that Bundesliga is on ESPN+. Now that UFC is leaving I'd love to be able to drop it as a streaming service. Their UI is fucking traaaash.
 
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