UFC 168 Live Gate Ranks Second Biggest At $6.2 Million
UFC 168 went down last week in Las Vegas and delivered a night of great fights. The shocking end to the evening may have put a downer on the evening for some, but I thoroughly enjoyed the event as a whole. It will certainly take a lot to top 2013 in MMA for the UFC.
The UFC 168 live gate and attendance numbers have been released and it’s good news for the promotion. The PPV numbers are yet to be revealed, but the crowd for the mega-event was composed of 14,574 spectators and they generated a live gate of $6.2 Million.
That figure places UFC 168 as the second highest ever gate figure, bested only by Anderson Silva’s second victory over Chael Sonnen at UFC 148. Along with the PPV numbers, this could well prove to be the biggest event ever. Surely with the UFC’s new plan for global expansion there will come a raise in fighter pay.
To put things in to perspective; Georges St-Pierre has earned .4 million during his 20 fight tenure in the UFC, making him the top earner (not including PPV cuts or sponsorships) in the promotion’s history. I’m not saying that GSP or Silva need a pay rise per se, it’s more the little guys that could do with more.
Fight night bonuses are a helpful add-on, but there are only three of those available and often between 8-12 fights per event. Guys fighting from the bottom face almost impossible odds at making a decent wage. The sport still needs to grow more, but the pay scale in the UFC may eventually hinder it’s progress by alienating athletes.
Another example is UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson. The three-time defending inaugural boss has fought a total of nine times for the world’s largest MMA promotion and earned merely $544K. I know that he has only been Champ for 18 months, but at an average of 60 grand a fight there is clearly room for improvement.
I would be stoked to make $60K for one nights work, but the reality is that the further up the MMA chain you go, the more expensive training camps become. It was a great year for MMA in 2013, lets hope that the fighters start reaping the benefits too. Banner photo courtesy of USA TODAY SPORTS
