The salary list is as follows:

Josh Burkman: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus)
def. Jon Fitch: $30,000

Steve Carl: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Tyson Steele: $7,000

Jacob Volkmann: $14,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
def. Lyle Beerbohm: $15,000

Justin Gaethje: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Cobb: $8,000

Jerrod Sanders: $8,000 (includes $4,000 win bonus)
def. Jeff Smith: $4,000

Dan Lauzon: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
def. John Gunderson: $6,000

Carson Beebe: $8,000 (includes $4,000 win bonus)
def. Joe Murphy: $4,000

Krasimir Mladenov: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Kendrick Miree: $4,000

Branson Hansen: $5,000 (includes $2,500 win bonus)
def. Josh Montalvo: $1,000

Payout Perspective:

Jon Fitch topped the card in terms of salary and likely topped the card in terms of disappointment.  $30K for a minute of work before Josh Burkman submitted Fitch.  Burkman had a $16K base and a $16K win bonus.  Notably, Jacob Volkmann had a $7K base in his defeat of Lyle Beerbohm who made 2x more than Volkmann’s base salary. In only his third MMA pro fight, Josh Montalvo made $1,000.

Evans edges Henderson

In what was an entertaining fight, Rashad Evans regained some career momentum with a split decision victory over Hendo.  The result could have gone either way with each fighter having their moments.  Hendo was visibly upset after the result and took a jab in the post-fight Octagon interview at Lyoto Machida stating that “at least Rashad fought him.”  For Hendo, its his second straight split decision loss.  This is definitely not what he wanted after he had to back out of his title shot against Jon Jones in September.

For Evans, the speculation is that Glover Texeira would be next.  Gatekeeper or another shot at making a run for the title?  We will see.

Stipe stops Nelson

Stipe Miocic upset Roy Nelson in the co-main event of the evening.  Despite fighting just six weeks prior, Nelson looked sluggish and lacking cardio.  Miocic looked crisp compared to Nelson who desperately needed a first round KO to win the fight.

Miocic gets a quality win under his resume and can continue to build it.  In fact, he’s cracked the UFC Heavyweight rankings.  For Nelson, the fight represented his last under his current Zuffa contract.  It was a risky proposition for Nelson to take the fight on short notice even if his fight with Cheick Kongo ended in the first round.  Now, with a disappointing loss and at 36 years old, Nelson has little bargaining power in negotiating a new contract with the UFC or any other organization.  Nelson turned down an extension earlier this year and another offer prior to 161.  This and we didn’t even touch upon his “Uncle Tom” comments this week during the pre-fight press conference.

Attendance and Gate

As we reported, attendance was 14,754 for a gate of $3.15 million (not sure if Canadian or US dollars – regardless a good gate).  According to Dana White, it was the best gate for the venue and outdid The Rolling Stones at the same venue.

Bonuses

The UFC debut of James Krause was memorable as he not only pulled out a submission in the last seconds of his fight with Sam Stout, he received an additional $100,000 in bonuses for his work. Each received $50,000 each.

Fight of the Night: Krause-Stout

Submission of the Night:  Krause.

KO of the Night: Shawn Jordan

Sponsorships

UFC official sponsor Alienware was the presenting sponsor for UFC 161.  It had signage on the mat and had the fighter “prep point” at the event.  The octagon had its usual sponsors including Prestone, Harley Davidson, TapouT, Xyience, Musclepharm, Dodge, SafeAuto Insurance, UFCFit.com and Bud Light with the center Octagon.  Also, Disney’s The Lone Ranger was a sponsor on the mat and ring posts.  Disney sponsoring the UFC?  Not too surprised considering that it fits within the demo for the movie.

Roy Nelson just signed a deal with Affliction.  Probably not the best signing for the clothing company.

Evans wore a Jaco track suit to the Octagon. He also wore a “Refuse to Be Ordinary” Jaco shirt.

Notable sponsor of the night:  Alexis Davis was sponsored by Purchase Green – an artificial grass manufacturer.  Davis had other sponsors but the Purchase Green logo stood out due to the motto on the back of the shirt – Kickin’ Grass.

Other notable sponsors:  Roland Delorme represented Winnipeg Academy of Mixed Martial Arts. Delorme’s opponent Edwin Figueroa was sponsored by River City Ink and Steel. Sean Pierson was sponsored by Cookin’ Greens – a company focused on helping people eat healthier with fresh, frozen greens.

Post-UFC161 Headlines

- Status of Bantamweight Division.  With its original champion, Dominick Cruz out indefinitely and its interim champion, Renan Barao, injured – what to do with the division? There have been some good fights in the division but there needs to be a title defense soon so that fans don’t forget about it.

- What happens with Roy?  It was a gamble and Roy lost.  Now, with a loss and heading into free agency, what will Nelson do?

- What will Hendo do?  2 losses by split decision is not the kind of resume to ask for a title shot unless your Chael Sonnen.  Hendo is not at the cliff of his career but there can’t be too much time left.

Odds and ends

- “City on Steroids” was the headline in the print edition of the Winnipeg Free Press.  Obvious poor choice for this sport. Yet, Winnipeg Press gave good reviews of the fight night.

- The UFC 162 preview with Jay Z’s music was the second best commercial featuring Jay Z this weekend.  The first of course was the Samsung commercial during The Finals Sunday night (IMO I think Rick Rubin was the key).

- I wondered why Tyron Woodley v. Jake Shields was not on the main card.  I watched the fight and realized why.

- Shawn Jordan’s backflip may have been more impressive than his KO of Pat Barry.

- It’s good to see that Rashad went back to BDP for his entrance music.   Evans’ walkout music wins best of the night although Alexis Davis’ “Its Tricky” by Run DMC runs a close second.

-  Anyone else notice the octagon side camera view near the cage in the Sexton-Davis match during the end of the second round?  I don’t believe I’ve seen it before but it definitely is an added view to what is going on with fighters grappling on the ground.

- MetroPCS ran a new Cain Velasquez commercial during the Prelims.  It seemed like a little more focus on his Mexican roots in this commercial..

- Worst weekend? Jon Fitch or Roy Nelson.  Have to go with Fitch here.  Not only was he portrayed as a malcontent by his former employer, he lost in under a minute and was paid half the amount of his former salary ($30K).

Conclusion

Although it was received well by the local fans, the overall PPV buys will not be good.  Even if the Renan Barao and Eddie Wineland interim championship match and the Shogun Rua-Lyota Machida fight took place, it would not have moved the dial too much.  If there’s anything that can be seen as a positive from this weekend’s event is that it appears that based on the attendance figures and local press, the UFC has grabbed another Canadian city it could rely on if it returned to the area.  Notwithstanding this, a PPV buy rate of 250,000 would be good.

Attendance and gate as reported from the post-UFC161 press conference was 14,754 for a gate of $3.15 million.  Dana White indicated that it was a record for the venue, the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.  White tweeted the previous record for the venue was The Rolling Stones.

Bonuses doled out by the company had Prelim fighter James Krause receive two bonuses for $100,000 total.

The bonuses were $50,000 each:

FOTN:  Krause v. Sam Stout

Submission of the Night:  Krause

KO of the Night: Shawn Jordan

The city of Winnipeg seemed to like the event.  But maybe Gary Lawless’ print article with the headline “City on Steroids” might not be the best choice to associate with this sport.  (via Ariel Helwani’s Instagram)

Payout Perspective:

A decent night of fights which saw a good main event and an upset with Stipe Miocic taking out Roy Nelson.  The record gate may be a little misleading dependent on the price for tickets however when you can say you outdid The Rolling Stones that is an accomplishment.  Certainly Stones tickets weren’t cheap.  MMA Payout will have more on the event in its Payout Perspective.

Rashad Evans

There’s a cliff that some fighters fall off of in their career and Evans’ last PPV appearance against Little ‘Nog could have been the perilous steps before falling off.  One might argue that it was Evans that pushed Chuck Liddell to the edge of the cliff with his stunning KO of Liddell at UFC 88.  Henderson could provide the punch to make Evans obsolete.

At UFC 108, Silva was a substitute for Rampage and Ortiz was a substitute at UFC 133 at a time when Ortiz had a resurgence of his career.  Notably, these two shows had low PPV buy rates.  I realize we dip a little deep with Evans’ past history but look at the buys for 92 and 98 where the buys were reported at 635K and 1M.   Impressive compared to the buys we see regularly now.

Which fight is not happening Saturday?

Dan Henderson

We leave out several of Henderson’s appearances on Strikeforce and focus on mainly his UFC appearances since his return to the company against Rampage.  His last fight was a disappointing loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 157.  We recall that the event was headlined by Ronda Rousey and drew well.

UFC 139 featured Henderson and Rua in a 5 round classic.  Wanderlei Silva knocking out Cung Le and Urijah Faber taking out Brian Bowles were also featured on the card.  Henderson also appeared in one of the co-mains at UFC 100 with his memorable KO of Michael Bisping after their coaching stint on TUF.

Henderson’s defeat of Fedor ranked fourth all-time in Strikeforce-Showtime history but still has to be one of the biggest fights the company had on the network.

As many recall, UFC 75’s fight versus Rampage Jackson scored 4.7 million viewers on Spike TV.  Very good numbers considering that UFC on Fox 2 scored the same rating.

Roy Nelson

The only good part about Nelson’s comments about Daniel Cormier this week was that it wasn’t done on twitter.  Aside from that, there wasn’t much positive about calling Cormier “Uncle Tom.” At 36, Nelson is still a solid attraction due in part to his KO power.  Just look at how most of his fights end.

Stipe Miocic

Miocic is not really a main event fighter and his UFC resume will not scare Nelson especially since his last fight was a TKO loss to Stephan Struve, someone that Nelson knocked out.

Payout Perspective:

Another summer, another Canadian card that fell victim to the injury bug.  But, Renao Barao v. Eddie Wineland and Shogun v. Little Nog probably would not have moved the dial dramatically.  Evans-Henderson is a very good fight but there’s no support on this card for a casual viewer to buy this PPV.  It will be very interesting to see where the buy rate lands for this card.

Payout Perspective:

This is one of the first commercials featuring Rousey since she won the UFC women’s bantamweight title.  According to the Sports Business Daily, the video is the start of a marketing campaign featuring Rousey in a series of videos (presumably as “The Insureon Protector”) as well as an interactive website.  We will see if this catches on for Rousey and if this will lead to bigger deals.

The outing came as the two UFC fighters partnered with Reebok in participating in this 4.5 mile ultimate obstacle course.

Payout Perspective:

Participation in this Reebok-sponsored event series is part of the partnership between Reebok, Varner and Hendricks.  Having two ultimate fighters compete in the race lends credibility to the race and gives it another way to promote its events held nation and world wide.  For Varner and Hendricks, its a great way to build goodwill in furthering their sponsorship opportunities with the brand.

The US Marines ceased its sponsorship with the UFC late last year.  The military spent nearly $100 million in sports sponsorship in 2008 but that has been cut in half since then.  The US Marines, a strong sponsor of the UFC in the past, has seen its budget drop 32% since 2008.

Not only sponsorship opportunities have diminished but TV ad buying from the military have waned.

The SBJ published the military advertising and recruiting budgets for each branch of the military service.  For the US Marines, it touted a $272.1 million advertising budget in 2008 and it has dropped to $168.6 million in 2013.  The article stated that the US Marines spent 22% of its budget on sports.

Payout Perspective:

The end of the US Marines sponsorship with the UFC left a hole for the UFC sponsor portfolio to fill.  At this point, it has not picked up another major sponsor.  In fact, recently it has dropped equipment manufacturer Pretorian. With the Marines pulling out of the UFC, one might infer that the relationship was not providing a return on the Marines’ investment on the sponsorship.

The show was highlighted by eight submissions on the card including the main event featuring Fabricio Werdum submitting Antonio Rodrigio Noguiera.  The numbers are good considering it competed with the NHL on NBC and MLB on Fox during the same timeframe.

Via Fox Sports Media Group Press Release:

Prime time, which consisted of the one-hour live Prefight Show and the three-hour main card, averaged 250,000 total viewers and a 0.51 HH rating, up +468% and +538% respectively vs. the June 2012 Saturday average.

UFC® ON FUEL TV 10 aired from 8:00 PM ET – 11:19 PM ET and averaged 313,000 viewers, ranking second all-time for a live fight event behind UFC® ON FUEL TV 8: SILVA VS. STANN on March 2, 2013 (485,000 viewers). The audience peaked from 9:45 PM ET to 10:00 PM ET with 399,000 viewers.

Moreover, UFC® ON FUEL TV 10 was the second most-watched and second highest-rated show ever in M18-49, with 183,000 viewers and a 0.88 rating.

On Saturday, June 8, FUEL TV averaged 87,000 viewers, making it the second-most watched day in network history behind the record set on March 2, 2013 (131,000 viewers). It was up +129% vs. the June 2012 Saturday average.

Payout Perspective:

A good showing considering the lack of American fighters on this card and the fact that there were sports alternatives out there.  Notably, the NHL playoffs ratings are booming this year.  The ratings in the key demos are positive signs as well.

The opposition includes 18 women – a bone of contention occurred in recent days as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver came under criticism for his handling of sexual discrimination claims involving Brooklyn Democrat Vito Lopez.

What it boils down to is the need for 76 Assembly Democrats to support the MMA bill.  With 35 expressing opposition, that leaves just 69 Assembly Democrats.  If this holds, the bill will not go forward again.

One of the reasons for the lack of support is a classic opposition argument which the opposition stated in a letter explaining its position.

Via The New York Daily News:

…the 35 Assembly Dems blast MMA as “brutal and barbaric” as well as anti-women and anti-gay.

The letter cites a shocking online parody “how-to” rape video made last year in which Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter “Rampage” Jackson pretended to try to rape a woman in a parking garage using chloroform and zip ties.

“The hateful incidences associated with MMA and the violent nature of the sport raise serious concerns about the adverse effect that legalizing professional MMA events in New York could have on the well-being of our citizens, especially our children,” the 35 Dems wrote in their letter.

Payout Perspective:

Seems like we’ve been here before.  The UFC does its usual grab and grin in Albany, everyone says this year is the year.  And, eventually, the momentum fizzles by June.  With Connecticut legalizing MMA, New York is the last notable (sorry Montana and Alaska) state that has not legalized MMA.

UPDATE:  To clarify as pointed out by Marc Ratner of the UFC, Montana and Alaska do not have athletic commissions.  Thus, those states do not have regulating bodies to govern MMA events.  So, Montana and Alaska could hold MMA events in its respective state.

What makes this disappointing is that the UFC has spent so much money in the effort to educate and lobby on behalf of MMA.  Still, its the same reasons we heard before the UFC’s efforts.

According to Spike TV President Kevin Kay, the move to Fridays was related to the NFL as football will begin showing a game a week on Thursdays starting this September.  However, the decision to move nights (again) comes at what one might infer as a way to avoid direct competition with the UFC on Wednesdays. The UFC begins airing programming starting on the new Fox network, Fox Sports 1 on August 17th and will continue with shows on Wednesday nights starting on August 28th.

However, as one might recall from the UFC’s lackluster performance on Friday nights, Bellator moving to Fridays appears to be a risky move.  The show will air from 9-11pm ET on Fridays.

The fall season of Bellator MMA will actually kick off on Saturday night September 7th as its coupled with the finale of Bellator’s Fight Master.

Payout Perspective:

Confused with the Bellator schedule yet?  It started on Thursdays on Spike TV.  It is moving to Wednesdays after TNA Wrestling was moved an hour later on Thursdays and now will be seen on Fridays starting this fall.  The reason is to avoid the NFL on Thursdays?  But, isn’t it going to be seen this summer on Wednesdays?  It’s been a public relations issue after another for Bellator these past couple months.  This latest move may have been necessary.  Ok, we understand the NFL on Thursday reason.  So why not Wednesdays?  This is to avoid head to head competition with the UFC with the anticipated UFC momentum of being on a new network and The Ultimate Fighter featuring Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate.  Likely, the UFC ratings would be better than Bellator ratings on Wednesday and the UFC would capitalize on that in advertising and promoting its product.  For Bellator, changing from Thursday, to Wednesday and now to Friday creates consumer confusion and negates some of its success in its first season with Spike TV.