Conor has the UFC in his palms now

rubberneck41 said:
Rouseys loss will only strengthen their idea that the UFCs plan of marketing the brand over the fighter is the correct one. Why sell out the brand for someone everyone is saying wants to leave the sport for boxing?
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Well the brand ain't doing too hot right now, and they know it.

If Conor takes 2017 off, hypothetically, they be lucky to get 2 million PPV buys.

They need 3 million PPV buys just to pay the interest on the 4.2 billion buy out.
 
rubberneck41 said:
Rouseys loss will only strengthen their idea that the UFCs plan of marketing the brand over the fighter is the correct one. Why sell out the brand for someone everyone is saying wants to leave the sport for boxing?
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Why? Because they dont want to go bankrupt and have the sinking ship take all of WME with it. As of 2015 WME and UFC were both grossing around 600 million in that year. WME went out on a huge limb, thought that they would be able to re-create arm bar nation with someone like Paige or Sage. They thought it would be easy to keep paying people like Ronda (good looking, potential cross over stars) 100K a fight and have them pull in 1 million PPV's and not complain.

Notice how we hear so much from all fighters wanting more money now and problems everywhere? That is because the managers/fighters realize that the UFC is in a tough bind and they NEED to find more fighters that can draw big numbers. At this point, I think it's safe to say that there is no current fighter, other than Conor, that can draw more than 400K PPV's.

In 2014, UFC made 75 million dollars (and that was a pretty good year compared to those before) while WME owe's 100 million a year in load debt. It is simple math: if they have a few more 2014's strung together, 'the whole ship sink'. Conor wasn't fucking around with his "Gucci Mink" comment, he understands what is really, really, really going on and if a star is not born in the very near future, WME will have to meet Conor's demands or risk bankruptcy, with the sinking UFC ship taking the collateral, WME ship, with it.
 
I'm sure Conor wouldn't mind fighting Khabib, but after Rousey losing this badly, if you think the UFC will risk matching Conor vs Khabib, then you're absolutely naive. MAYBE, just MAYBE if they can pull it off in Russia it would be fucking massive, but it's fucking Russia. Nobody wants to fight in Russia vs someone from that area for obvious reasons.
 
TheRuthlessOne said:
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book it
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I never realized that was Cody. Cool
 
The UFC has a lot of fighters. They will just make somebody else a star.
 
Karl Tanner said:
Stipe? - Not even the best HW. Boring class.
DC? - Facepalm.
Bisping? - Lol
Woodley ?- Could only get a draw.
Alvarez? - Retired.
Aldo? - Paper-champ.
Cruz? - Got wrecked.

and their last hope;

Ronda Rousey - Literally done.

On the other hand Conor is the first two division champ in history, real P4P #1, has the redeemed warrior image after avenging his only loss at two weights classes above in the UFC, there's also a new possibility of a third Diaz fight at WW again or at LW for a change, or the possibility of fighting for the WW title, or the possibility of defending the LW title against an undefeated Russian muslim foe Khabib. Lots of interesting options and I'm not even talking about Conor vs. Mayweather.

He also brings the biggest PPV, biggest gate, biggest media, biggest social media, biggest stardom etc.

I believe Dana will reach Conor after the baby is born for congrats and then will invite him for a quick chat about the future of UFC :)

Imo, Rousey's embarrassment sealed the deal.
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Stipe is the best HW he has the belt and defended it. He's won 6 of his last 7 fights and the only loss was a razor thin slug fest decision loss to JDS. And lets not forget the murderer's row he has fought in his last 4 and beaten: Hunt, AA, Werdum, Overeem. No other HW at this time could fight those 4 in a row and come out without losing one and KO'ing all 4.
Until someone beats him and takes the belt he is #1 at the moment.

But I agree Conor has the UFC by the balls. He gets $30 million for his next fight easy.
 
JoshR86 said:
Well the brand ain't doing too hot right now, and they know it.

If Conor takes 2017 off, hypothetically, they be lucky to get 2 million PPV buys.

They need 3 million PPV buys just to pay the interest on the 4.2 billion buy out.
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YEP! Bingo. This man is likely a home owner.

It's simple math, they took out a 4.2 billion dollar loan to buy a new house. They owe 100 million dollars annually on that 4.2 billion dollar loan. WME and UFC roughly make the same money annually and in order to secure said loan, WME put up it's company as collateral. So, if WME can't make that 100 million "rent payment", not only is the UFC fooked, but WME is fooked.

People say "I'm sure they knew what they were getting into but these deals are decided by number geeks, pundits, "professionals" and the same type of people that gave Donald Trump of 1% chance of winning the election. Hardcore fans likely know 100x more about how fickle MMA can be and that the popularity of the sport hinges on single fighters (like boxing). They essentially gambled on the "Don King" brand was bigger than Tyson based upon numbers and patterns that they saw.

I also think people tuned into the Ronda era because it was so new and unknown (much like the Kimbo days). People really wanted to see if this girl could legitimately beat up 50% of the UFC men that were her size. Just like early UFC, there was so much intrigue owing to the mystery, and once people found out "the emperor had no clothes", they could care less. IMO, WMMA will start performing now like other female sports.

And Conor's magnitude of success was COMPLETELY owing to the fact Ireland has likely the deepest history of hand to hand fighting in the world and were starved for someone/a superstar to represent them. Conor tapped into that virginal market and that fresh excitement spread everywhere, it spread to Irish descendants around the world, it was a once in a century type perfect storm. However, when/if he leaves, you will see a MASSIVE lull in ratings, akin to when Brocktober ended but amplified even more. For example, if TFerg Khabib guaranteed gets Conor, you will see much more people tune in to see his future opponent, opposed to if Conor was retired and TFerg Khabib would not be facing him.
 
Polish Punisher said:
Stipe is the best HW he has the belt and defended it. He's won 6 of his last 7 fights and the only loss was a razor thin slug fest decision loss to JDS. And lets not forget the murderer's row he has fought in his last 4 and beaten: Hunt, AA, Werdum, Overeem. No other HW at this time could fight those 4 in a row and come out without losing one and KO'ing all 4.
Until someone beats him and takes the belt he is #1 at the moment.

But I agree Conor has the UFC by the balls. He gets $30 million for his next fight easy.
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Yeah, Stipe is a stud but he is just a normal looking American nice guy. He is to Croatia what Marcus Davis was to Ireland; they both realized they would be bigger in a foreign market but that foreign market isn't falling for it.

Brock, Ronda and Conor all had the talk and the Hollywood super star appeal. That is the difference between 300k ppvs and 1.3 million ppvs. GSP was an anomaly; a super nice guy, a supremely dominant fighter, really good looking, but also he was from star starved Canada. If Stipe had his fighting gifts, looked like Jouban and had PMP's personality tho, he would be HUGE.
 
ImNotSurpisedDonks! said:
Why? Because they dont want to go bankrupt and have the sinking ship take all of WME with it. As of 2015 WME and UFC were both grossing around 600 million in that year. WME went out on a huge limb, thought that they would be able to re-create arm bar nation with someone like Paige or Sage. They thought it would be easy to keep paying people like Ronda (good looking, potential cross over stars) 100K a fight and have them pull in 1 million PPV's and not complain.

Notice how we hear so much from all fighters wanting more money now and problems everywhere? That is because the managers/fighters realize that the UFC is in a tough bind and they NEED to find more fighters that can draw big numbers. At this point, I think it's safe to say that there is no current fighter, other than Conor, that can draw more than 400K PPV's.

In 2014, UFC made 75 million dollars (and that was a pretty good year compared to those before) while WME owe's 100 million a year in load debt. It is simple math: if they have a few more 2014's strung together, 'the whole ship sink'. Conor wasn't fucking around with his "Gucci Mink" comment, he understands what is really, really, really going on and if a star is not born in the very near future, WME will have to meet Conor's demands or risk bankruptcy, with the sinking UFC ship taking the collateral, WME ship, with it.
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The WME loan runs from June 2016-June 2017. They are targeting an ebitda(profits before deductions) of $275 million. If they meet this goal, they take out a 175 million bonus for WME. That is more than twice fighter salaries for 2015. They are not paying off the debt just the interest on the debt. WME is also charging a $25 million management fee to the UFC. They are soaking all the profits out of the UFC, and cutting all costs. There main goal is a 400 million a year tv deal in 2018. The period from June 2016 to now probably has been the best in the UFC history, so I don't know who close they are to the 275 million goal.
 
lol Conor got a gifted title shot after going 1-1 with a fringe top 10 LW and then beat the worst champ in the UFC who only had the belt due to fluke and should have lost his prior 3 fights.
 
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