Not only did UFC 190’s near million pay-per-view buys, which bested the phenomenal sales figure set by 189, take literally all of us by storm inside the hardcore bubble, it also looks like “Rowdy” is able provide a bigger post-event ratings bump to Fox Sports cards otherwise destined for low numbers than the brash talking “Notorious” one – clearly demonstrating that it is Ronda Rousey, not Conor McGregor, who is better for building the UFC brand.
Per MMAfighting’s Dave Meltzer :
“It appears all the UFC media coverage and talk in the wake of Ronda Rousey’s win over Bethe Correia seemed to be the wave that led a higher tide, as Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night from Nashville posted big numbers, even with a lack of big-name fighters.
Saturday’s main card, headlined by a light heavyweight battle of top contenders, where Glover Teixeira finished Ovince Saint Preux in the third round, airing from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET on FS 1, did 1,159,000 viewers. It was the sixth-biggest Fight Night audience in the history of the two-year-old station. While not in the league of the record-setting Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver show in January, which did 2.75 million viewers, only one other fight night this year was in the same range. The Feb. 22 show, headlined by Frank Mir vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, did 1,212,000 viewers, but that also aired two hours earlier, a significantly more favorable time slot, and Mir’s name value to the public is far stronger than anyone on Saturday’s show. “
This is especially significant, as the ratings for the TUF 21 finale that took place one night after UFC 189, fresh in the euphoria of that historic card, did a paltry 691,000 viewers. This was the second lowest rated event this year, behind UFN 62 in March, headlined by Damian Maia vs Ryan LaFlare. The TUF 21 finale, much like the Nashville show, also lacked star power. I spoke with Luke Thomas about the traffic at MMAfighting.com for the event and he reported it was “close to zero”. When asked if the fight was merely drowned out in McGregor mania, or if there was a hangover, he suggested that it was the card’s lack of star power above all else. Clearly, for that event, McGregor had no carry over.
What makes this even more shocking is the belief that much of Rousey’s fanbase comes, largely, from outside the sport’s typical audience. While this is obviously true, as no MMA insiders expected her numbers to be close to what they were, the general consensus among many fans this week, despite her PPV success, is that this demographic reality would limit her ability to bring in new long term UFC fans in the way Lesnar, Liddell or the early TUF era did during those boom periods. It seemed like that while Ronda was the novelty that brought TMZ and The Wall Street Journal alike, McGregor had the ability to energize actual fight fans around the sport itself. It seemed like Ronda would create Ronda fans, while McGregor could create fight fans.
This does not appear to be the case, and in fact seems the opposite is true. It seems like McGregor engages fans who are already familiar with the sport, and already know which fights they do and do not want to see, while Rousey is the one bringing in fresh faces who may have not made those types of decisions on OSP or Wonderboy just yet. This gives McGregor less ability to provide a bump in viewership to other events than Rousey(at this time, as he may cross over into a mainstream star himself). UFC 189 was the hardcore UFC fan’s dream card, but most people who viewed it were already engaged with the sport to one degree or another. They already had an idea what they’re interested in. The people who tuned in for Rousey are comparative virgins and as a result, more likely to decide to sit down and have another, when they otherwise wouldn’t have tuned in to the UFC at all.
Of course. there are other factors that are hard to control for in this. The card following McGregor was a TUF finale and linked to the failing show. While both shows lacked star power, the TUF finale was buried by closer proximity to the big show it orbited. The card following Rousey had an important contender fight between Amanda Nunes and Sara McMann that ended up trending on facebook after the fight simply because it exists within the Rowdyverse. It is hard to say if Nunes/McMann had any impact on the event at all before hand, but if it did, that is yet another testament to her bizarro-world superstar status.
Dana White has been saying for a while that Ronda Rousey was the UFC’s biggest star. For about three weeks, it looked like that was no longer true. For a a brief moment, it seemed that the newly crowed Notorious King Conor of House McGregor had usurped the Iron Throne. Then UFC 190 happened and the Queen of MMA, the Andals and The First Men, The Breaker of Chains and Breaker of Arms, the Mother of Dragons, and the Rowdy One reopened the Fighting Pits from Meereen to Rio to Vegas in a way no MMA star has done since the half giant, WWE-King Beyond the MMA-Wall, Brock Lesnar invaded the sport and brought a horde of wrestling fan wildlings with him.
Brace yourselves. Ronda is coming.
TORONTO, ON – MAY 13: Ronda Rousey signs copies of her new book ‘My Fight/Your Fight’ at Indigo Manulife Centre on May 13, 2015 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage
