Do CM Punk PPV buys put UFC in a predicament?
When CM Punk decided he wanted to try MMA, it put the UFC in a predicament. Bellator MMA was searching fiercely…
When CM Punk decided he wanted to try MMA, it put the UFC in a predicament. Bellator MMA was searching fiercely for a name big enough to drive a PPV.
CM Punk was that.
CM Punk too was in a predicament. He respected MMA enormously and wanted to fight, but an appropriate first fight for him would be at the amateur level, paying nothing. And the UFC is the UFC – where very nearly every fighter wants to be. So does he fight some tough high school wrestler/blue belt for free, or does he make $500,000 in the UFC? Having made the odd decision to fight in MMA before training in it, CM Punk made the obvious choice.
The UFC signed CM Punk in 2014, and then he started training. UFC president Dana White did the matchmaking personally and found welterweight Mickey Gall at a local show while shooting an episode of Lookin’ for a Fight.
CM Punk ended up showing virtually no skills in his debut at UFC 203, hung tough, took some shots, and finally tapped to a choke at 2:14 of Round 1.
Early PPV estimates were in the 650,000-800,000 range, up radically from the expected 300,000 or so that Miocic got the last time he headlined. Now the authoritative Dave Meltzer for MMA Fighting has a lower estimate of UFC 203 buys, in the 425,000-475,000 range.
Still, that is perhaps an extra 150,000 buys at $60 each, resulting in at least $4,000,000 for the company. And this was after CM Punk did not engage in any pro wrestling inspired antics in the lead up to the fight.
The UFC signed Punk to a multi-fight contract. And a second UFC fight would likely not generate the same revenue as the first, but CM Punk would still likely be a draw. Meltzer explains some of the options.
So does UFC cut a fighter who can drive revenue and bring eyeballs to the product? Every winner at UFC 203, from Miocic to Werdum to Jessica Andrade, benefited by being on the same show with Punk, economically in some cases, and exposure-wise in all cases.
The question, harder to answer, is it worth $500,000 to UFC for Punk to help television ratings for a second show? And while the UFC would only need Punk to be able to drive 17,000 added buys to make it worth their while on pay-per-view, a figure he’d easily surpass, there is a question of putting him in a pay-per-view slot after his first performance.
Or does UFC cut him and allow Bellator to reap the rewards?
UFC did cut Kimbo Slice after two fights, but Scott Coker’s Strikeforce, known for great action fights, wasn’t a good fit and Slice never went there. Coker’s Bellator is a different animal, one where Slice was the company’s biggest draw until his untimely death, and one where you can’t deny the evidence, even if you’d want to, that it’s the freak show fights that bring the eyeballs.
Through the UFC Fight Pass service, the UFC has connections to put CM Punk on a regional show, against a regional fighter who is, too, a one-stripe white belt. Fight Pass streams live shows from Alaska FC, Invicta FC, EFN, Pancrase, Shooto Brazil, and Titan FC. Punk has now fought pro, so cannot go back, but assuming he has more skills than he showed in the fight and on training tape, a fair pro fight likely could be made there somewhere.
Fight Pass could even build some mini documentaries around it. And the UFC pays for the purses for Cris Cyborg while she fights in Invicta, so there is some precedent for the arrangement. It’s hard to imagine that CM Punk on Titan FC generates $500,000 for the company, but the UFC has a 203 profit cushion to work with, and Fight Pass is the future of the company, so that might be a reasonable way to go.