Early “UFC on Fox 3″ Ratings Down From Previous Shows
By Chris Leslie on May 7, 2012
The early “UFC on Fox 3″ ratings are in and the numbers showed a decline in viewers from the UFC’s previous Fox cards. TV by the Numbers listed the approximate numbers at 2.25 million viewers, down from UFC on Fox 2′s 4.7 million viewers.
Now it should be noted these numbers are always subject to change, but even if they did increase, it is unlikely the numbers would increase that much.
There are always a multitude of factors involved in TV ratings but it is important to note that the card did precede one of the largest boxing cards of the year and the card simply did not have the star power that the other Fox cards have contained.
The bright side for the UFC is that card did finish strongly in the critical 18-49 demographic.
UFC President Dana White was still elated with the card overall, telling Fox Sports:
“I’m pumped with the way that the fights went. What’s funny is even when we started the night, we were 35 minutes over the format and Diaz comes in and stops Miller. It couldn’t have gone any more perfect. Tonight was the perfect night.”
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I would say it most has to do with the hangover from the previous card. The Bones/Evans fight was very highly anticipated. Sometimes that’s enough to hold the general public for a while. I know I was one of the 2.7 million!
or….
Most people were on getting drunk acting a fool for Cinco de Mayo and more interested in Mayweather vs Cotto
Or most people had no idea the fights were going on. It was unexpected to watch the prelims on Fuel at 5pm PST and then realize that the main card on FOX was going on Instead. A lot of my friends missed the first couple fights because they had no idea that the Fights were on so early.
Pick any of the above. I still can’t help but wonder if the numbers for TUF and these “fight night lives” would be better if shown during the week.
Fox isn’t going to move it’s stronger performing big budget shows during the week for the UFC. Maybe they move TUF, but Fox has actually been very happy with how TUF has performed on Fridays, which is better than all of their shows have performed on FX.
All my friends went to see boxing. So I was the only one watching it lol.
Hard to beat a good boxing match like Mayweather/Cotto …… Even though these types of fights are rare these days and usually a one sided beatdown ppv . I started with boxing as a kid so its nice to see a war .
Still 2.4 million aint bad for the UFC ……… could be better but most tv ratings as a whole for MMA are low anyways .
I saw both UFC on fox and the boxing. I feel sorry for those who missed UFC on fox 3 cuz that was a bada$$ event! Much better than the previous two and wayy better than mayweather vs cotto…
Of course they were down with cinco de Mayo and boxing. That wasn’t just one of the most biggest boxing events of the year, it was one of the biggest of all time. You guys just put these headlines to get the conversation going, even when you know they’re misleading?
I watched the UFC and boxing with a couple friends who could care less about either, and its funny how quick both of them agreed that every single UFC fight, including the first fight, was way more entertaining than the boxing title fight. Boxing somehow survives, but I don’t know how…
Because they keep dangling the carrot that Mayweather will fight Pacquiao. Once that fight happens, which I highly doubt it ever will, there really aren’t many fights out there people want to see and boxing will really fall off the radar.
Bob Arum doesn’t want that fight to happen because he knows damn well he doesn’t have anything after that. When in reality, if the two fought and it wasn’t a one-sided beatdown, there is the potential to build up a trilogy that Boxing has needed for years…
That’s an interesting point by both of you. I made the point that boxing was dead as a doornail, and.my friend made the point that Sat’s fight may have been the highest grossing fight of all time, and that left me scratching my head. I understand that we all do tend to hold on, in hopes of that fight happening (which I think it will btw), but I’m still mystified that they can break records to this day. Maybe boxing has a little of the soccer effect in that its super popular around the world too. I’m sure that has something to do with it…
Remember when you brought up PPV buys? Boxing topped a million 3 times last year, the UFC did not top 800,000. Boxing is far from on the way out, and it does have strong support internationally. Boxing’s problem is there are few true superstars, something the UFC shares. While the UFC may have more consistent ppv numbers, it cannot match the draw of the boxing superstars… and if they did, the payouts would be a lot higher…
Yes that’s the reason boxing hangs on… Boxing may top a million buys 3 times, but UFC topped 500,000 30 times. That’s a poor excuse if that’s UFC’s reasoning behind not paying better. The UFC maybe “lacks stars” internationally, but only as bad as boxing does. But entertainment value wise it kills boxing, and that’s why they are overall the ppv kings now.
On another note, Mayweather is an absolute genius. Not only for apologizing to old man death, but bringing out bieber was just pure brilliance. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but he absolutely deserves the 32 million (and would deserve the 60/40 over pacman imo), as he carries boxing almost completely on his own.
Or around 500,000 or more 30 times I should say. As exaggerated as it sounds, it’s prob about true mathematically.
You know, making up numbers isnt necessary and it is a huge exaggeration since the UFC only had 16 PPVs and only 4 broke 500,000 views in 2011, with 0 reaching 1,000,0000
Ah that’s true not all events are ppv. I’m working on educated guesses here, but I think I’m right overall.My main point is they are doing much better than many know, or is publicized, even buy you guys. I bet that if you looked at the last 30 events total, they prob average 500,000 views, which is sick. And that they had more than 3 million ppvs total in the year and do compare to some degree with boxing in the overall buys… I just feel like its down played too much how good the ratings and buys actually are, considering, and compared to how little the fighters get paid compared. I wanna be careful to not make excuses for the UFC. They are killing it. And only a few fighters are. But until they get a union, that’s the way it is. And if you have your hands on the list of ppv buys for the year, or could point me to it, that would be awesome!
There is a wonderful website called google.com. Ever heard of it?
Wow bbiz you made a funny!
And on that note…
I seem to get criticized because cuz I scoff at the “low ratings” and argue that the fighters are getting chopped liver (which I guess I can’t complain about…because it is YOUR ALL
S site ;-) …and so I really can’t blame you for being offended or telling me to take a hike once in a while when I seem combative) :-) But I truly do appreciate your guys responding from time to time, and sorry if I come of combative from time to time, but what can I say, I love the debate! And also do enjoy the knowledgeable banter. I do appreciate the angle in the headline that the ratings were down, as it gets conversation going (maybe too much sometimes ;-)) and after all…it is true. I suppose I’m just on a one man mission to point out how damn good the UFC is doing, how low the fighters are getting paid (as an interesting point and slight jab at the brass, not as a whine for its the fighters who need to take responsibility for their own lives). And I guess I do tend to not love negative media in general. But I genuinely appreciate what you guys do, and do mean to just get meaningful and.interesting banter going on. Anyway, I’m just saying I hope it doesn’t come off as a douchey attack from time to time. I’m just throwing out my opinion and an opposing point occasionally when it happens.
Since bbiz brought up that Google thing (which after some struggle, I’m happy to say I did find!), here is an interesting link I’m sure you guys have seen, but nevertheless I’d like to share. Its crazy how truly little the payers make, especially compared to boxing (granted, some of the UFC stars get a little ppv love that isn’t shown) http://www.mma-manifesto.com/ufc-fighter-salary-database/salary-main/ufc-career-fighter-earnings.html.
Boxers tend to make more because one or two guys will essentially sell the entire card, but some boxers get more in one fight than most star UFC fighters get in their entire career! And although there are many more fighters on a UFC card than boxing, its usually one guy who makes the ppv for UFC…yet he gets paid a fraction of the total pull. The UFC prob averaged between 400,000 and 500,000 buys over 16 events last year which is about 300 to 400 million! Per year! For ppv alone! Yet the highest paid fighter in UFC history has made less than 10 million total in his whole career. Lol. Just saying. Its pretty freaking interesting when you think about it though…
And if you ever wonder why I’m seeming to balk here and there to stuff, or be a pain, its cuz I never see those stories, but I feel like I do see the low ratings stories from time to time. Anyway, just throwing it out there. I know I do like to be a goof and/or a menace from time to time, but for what its worth I do mean to say my serious comments with good.intentions. And regardless of anything, I don’t truly wanna come off as invalidating to your guys work or intentions. I hope to just keep interesting conversation. Anyway, keep up the good work!
Chris you don’t have to respond to me above, but you still never really stated why fighters make a fraction of boxers. Even the 10 most famous fighters in the UFC make 1/50th of what the most famous boxer does…but will have 1/2 the ppv draw. No one can knock UFC for their talent in business, but my point is the fighters need a union and more money for fights.
I’m trying to be legit, not just throw out fake numbers here to force agreement wrongly. You don’t have to admit or recognize what I’m.saying, but I don’t think It’s fair for you to knock my overall point without a reason, or to just kinda give me a make wrong and then peace out and not even acknowledge my note above. I mean its not a friends chat room where we all have to agree, its an mma website/business. Even if you think what I say is stupid, I’m just a patron, trying to talk mma…
Why do top boxers make more? They bring in more business and higher paying sponsors, plain and simple.
For instance, Mayweather-Cotto finished with more than 1.5 million PPV buys, and that’s not counting the ad revenue the free replay will make this weekend. The live gate was $12 million… and required only 16,000 people to get there. Even with that high of total it is only #9 on the list of NSAC’s highest gate totals of all-time (which includes both MMA and Boxing). MMA didn’t even crack the top 35, with the top MMA gate being Liddell vs. Ortiz 2 in 2006.
The UFC’s record gate, UFC 129, was over 12 million but they also had 55,000 in attendance. A fact that significantly alters the wow factor when compared with Mayweather-Cotto, which hit $12 million with a fraction of the attendance.
I didn’t respond because your argument makes no sense. You’re accusing me of downplaying how good the ratings and PPV buys “actually are” when I am reporting what they are. For example, the UFC on Fox 3 actually did worse in the key 18-49 demographic than “48 Hours Mystery” (which ran during the Cotto-Mayweather fight) and had fewer viewers than reruns of NCIS: LA and Shark Tank. Do I mention that? No, and I also give reasons for the numbers being down.
There’s no conspiracy amongst writers to make the UFC look bad so fighters get paid very little. If the numbers are down, the pay stays down(that’s why FOTN bonuses are variable because they’re based on the gate)… it’s Occam’s Razor.
As for fighter pay, are MMA fighters underpaid? Some are certainly but it’s all relative. Believe me I can relate to that since, before I had a career-ending training injury when I was about to go pro, I would have made less on my fights base pay than I would owe to my gym and other fees. That’s just the hard reality of getting started. Boxing is no different there as well.
As for the UFC, we don’t actually know what they’re paid in full because we’re only given the reported payouts, which is what the promotion gives to the commission for tax purposes. It’s well known they make more than that per fight from the UFC in bonuses, both announced and unannounced, and signing bonuses. Plus, certain fighters are now directly sponsored by the UFC. The UFC also keeps their actual numbers private, so there’s no way to actually know what they fully payout. To speculate on that is irresponsible since you don’t report without verified data.
Also, you’re forgetting the UFC has to pay for marketing, other employees (and they have a lot), mandatory fight-night insurance, out-of-competition insurance, PPV fees, legal fees, licensing fees, lobbying fees, venue fees, etc. For a company that maintains they make most of their money from PPV revenue, they certainly spend a lot as well. Do not forget, the Fertitta’s main company just left bankruptcy last year.
Would a fighter’s union help? Sure, but that will not happen until the UFC is viewed as being in violation of anti-trust laws. I say this since creating a union would have no effect until the top fighters have to join, the top 10% of UFC fighters are very well taken care of by the company. Until the UFC needs a union to avoid being in violation of anti-trust laws, there will not be one.
It’s not that I agree or disagree with you, it’s that I will always add the real numbers to a conversation so that speculation (when the facts are available) is not used as the basis of an argument.
Cool! Thanks so much for that. Makes a lot of sense that you would only speak about what you know as fact as far as numbers, and that since there is no way to know the final payouts, you don’t talk about it.
I didn’t think that there was a conspiracy to say UFC ratings were low, or anything like that. I guess what I was getting at is I feel they are relative to the pay for the fighters in that event. And that in my own best estimation, when I compare the ppv (always in the tens of millions), to the reported fighter payouts (usually around low hundred thousands, up to low millions if one of the top 10 or 15 are fighting). My point was just that it seems that there could be a large discrepancy between how much the UFC are making, and how much they are paying, and even with low ratings, this could still be true. And thank you for your extra research on the shows that beat the event. I do think there still could be truth in that even though the numbers were low, the payouts weren’t close to total revenue (obviously just speculation).
Yes of course the UFC pays other employees, lots of marketing, etc, and so I take that into account. Of course they also get revenue from other places like tv deals, merchandise, etc. But again, they’re private so their is no way to know.
I think we all do some speculation here…if not there wouldn’t be as much to talk about. But I think as long as its reasonable and has some evidence related to it then its probably not harmful. You know I’m not the first to bring this up, espn and others have gone into great detail about it too. And I think its a highly interesting topic.
True my numbers were guessed, but in reality they weren’t that far off from what they actually are. More importantly I was trying to get the conversation centered around the fighters pay, not just the exact numbers of the UFC events. But I could’ve stated that much better, because I think there is more of a point to be made about the fighters pay appearing off, than my overall guestimation of them :)
As a former fighter I’m a little surprised you haven’t gone into this subject more. I mean whether its true or not that fighters are grossly underpaid, it is true there is a lot of debate about it.
I only carried on about this to try to get to that point. I felt you sort of dismissed me, and didn’t really get that close to commenting on the argument when you said: ” While the UFC may have more consistent ppv numbers, it cannot match the draw of the boxing superstars… and if they did, the payouts would be a lot higher…”.
That, to me, still doesn’t really answer the question, do fighters get paid enough, or is the UFC actually doing much better than we realize (and much better than is occasionally being promoted with headlines like “ratings down again”. I’m not attacking you guys for that, I’m just bringing up a point.
I’m not saying UFC fighters should make 32 million a fight, like mayweather did. I’m saying that in general, perhaps the UFC is killing it, and perhaps the fighters are not getting enough.
That’s why I continued the conversation. I don’t think I was being any more speculative than you were there in our first comments. I thought that UFC was underpaying, and you thought that their was no way to know and therefore had no opinion (but I didn’t know that was your view until your last response).
I could very well be right. Or I could be wrong. I didn’t think I needed to be attacked for my numbers, or opinion. I was just trying have a discussion about it. I think I normally bring some amount of reason to my points and views, and genuinely try to make the conversation get going, or make it more interesting. But even if you don’t think anything I say is worth anything, that’s fine, but I’m still a patron who visits every day, and I think I could at least get the benefit of the doubt and be shown at least some courtesy.
I complimented you guys on your efforts and am truly thankful for it. Sure I may say some things contrary to your views, but if you can’t handle that with at least some grace then I don’t think that’s right. I mean after all, I’m just some guy named Devin, sharing my opinions.
Here’s the thing about fighter pay and why I say it’s all relative. The law of supply and demand is why fighter pay is what it is.
There’s a surplus supply of solid to reasonably strong fighters (that will never usually be champion but are entertaining), but the demand is limited due to UFC roster sizes. So due to that, if a fighter wants higher pay than what he’s getting from the UFC, he is screwed because there are plenty of fighters willing to take his place. The few elite fighters also aren’t necessarily paid highly due to the other aspect of fighter pay.
Here’s why ratings/buyrates are important, because buyrates/ratings=demand and events=supply. So again, ratings increasing=higher pay. There are two prime examples of this, Brock Lesnar and Dan Henderson. Brock was one of the highest paid fighters in UFC history and he was also the only fighter, to date, to consistently bring 1,000,000 buyrates. So if he wanted a to come back from the WWE, his cost/benefit analysis would be worth it. Meanwhile, when Hendo pulled a powerplay on the UFC, before being let go and joining Strikeforce, his cost/benefit was not worth it since he’s never been a strong PPV draw. So until fighters have proven their “worth”, pay won’t increase much. The organizations that have paid more than the UFC in the past, usually end up broke and being bought out by the UFC. Most new organizations have learned this by now, including Bellator, so rather than trying to compete with Zuffa paywise, they only offer what they can reasonably do. Leaving things where Zuffa pays the most overall and that going elsewhere is not financially sound.
Great stuff. Thanks very much for taking the time. Your points in the second paragraph pretty much explained it all for me. I never really thought about how many lower tier guys there are that would willingly take those “low paying” undercard fights should the fighters complain. And it prob works it way up from there.
I totally get it about the ppv buys being a huge defining factor. Also about the other promotions failing miserably with the giant purses. And why they would let hendo go. I do think that the UFC is doing much better than they would have us believe (or at least compared to how they pay…even the top tier fighters), but it is their company. Also I could be wrong, but I do think its an interesting debate nonetheless. And as you said, the fighters don’t have much of a leg to stand on as long as the next guy down keeps accepting whatever pay they offer. Which is again, another reason why I feel like a union would be pretty cool.
I suppose it really shouldnt bother me, as I’m not a fighter. But there are times that I think their money first tactics are to the disservice of not only some fighters, but also to the fans…like in the case of them letting Hendo go, and letting koch skip KZ so they could have a title fight fill a hole, all for the sake of money. Etc etc. I even wonder if Bendo/Edgar 2 was more favorable to them, just because they knew they could get more money from that match up than any of the other options they had.
n the end, maybe I’m a little too idealistic in my hopes for how the UFC would be run, buthey that’s part of the bad that I guess we have to accept along with the good. And there is a lot of good.
One day I do hope for some sort of fighters union to emerge. Not only to protect the integrity in the few areas where it is lacking, but also to help set up some of these amazing and exciting fighters with pensions for when their fighting careers are over. But that will be for them to demand.in the end.
Anyway, thanks a lot for the time and.knowledge.