UFC 327 took place at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on Saturday.

The event drew 17,741 for a gate of $6,518,684 according to the UFC.

The Fight of the Night went to Josh Hokit and Curtis Blaydes. The heavyweights put on one of the craziest and exciting fights in the division in recent memory. Hokit and Blaydes threw haymakers and combinations at each other for three rounds with Hokit getting the best of most exchanges. Despite both being visibly exhausted they continued to throw and neither one was knocked down from the big blows. Each received $100K.

In addition, Josh Hokit received another $100K. Although I had not checked, it seems like this is the first time a fighter has received an announced $100K Performance Bonus with this new structure without scoring a KO, Submission or being FOTN.

Carlos Ulberg earned $100K as he won the UFC Light Heavyweight title from Jiri Prochazaka. Ulberg suffered a leg injury during the first round of the fight and while Prochazaka decided not to attack the leg, it allowed Ulberg to remain in the fight and score a KO.

The finish bonuses went to Cub Swanson in his retirement match against Nate Landwehr. Swanson scored a first round KO as he became the last WEC fighter to step into the Octagon/Cage. Swanson received $25K.

Also receiving $25K finish bonuses were Mateusz Gamrot, Tatiana Suarez and Vincente Luque.

During the UFC 327 broadcast, it was announced that Gable Stevenson has signed with the UFC and will debut July 11 at UFC 329.

Stevenson, a former Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and NCAA Division I amateur wrestling champion has fought 4 pro MMA fights going undefeated.

Prior to his MMA career, he trained to be a professional wrestler at the WWE Performance Center starting in 2020. Despite the hype behind him, he was released in 2024. In May 2024, it was reported that he had signed a deal with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills to play defensive line. He was subsequently released in August of 2024.

He then started his MMA career with his pro debut in September 2025.

Stevenson was sitting next to former UFC champion Jon Jones prior to in the crowd at UFC 327 when Jon Anik made the subtle announcement.

Stevenson will fight during UFC’s International Fight Week in Las Vegas in July. His opponent has not been announced but it’s likely he will be one of the central figures on the card.

The president will make an appearance at UFC 327 in Miami. This year’s appearance comes at a time where the United States is embroiled in a war with Iran and “peace talks” are taking place this week.

Yet, as with most times he appears at the UFC, it is to boost his ego. This will be at least the 10th time that the president has attended the UFC. In all instances, he has received his own entrance to booming applause.

Notably, at UFC 302 in June 2024, the president received a standing ovation two days after being convicted on 34 felony counts. Similarly, the president will seek re-assurance from many who support him at UFC 327.

Ahead of UFC 327, the uniform compliance pay for each fighter scheduled to enter the Octagon on Saturday.

The number in parentheses indicates the number of fights each has in the UFC including the fight they are slated for on Saturday. Those with a * indicated they fought on Dana White’s Contender Series. the # indicates they fought in LFA.

On Friday, TKO announced a multiyear sponsorship agreement with “technology-enabled licensed insurance agency Supersure. It was announced by the Sports Business Journal that it was the first sponsor to be involved in the broadcast of UFC Freedom 250.

TKO announced a broader deal with the Florida-based company which will include UFC, Zuffa Boxing and UFC BJJ.

Supersure will be the Official Small and Medium Business Insurance Partner for TKO. Its the first time this category has been open. It also infers that TKO is leaving open the opportunity for a bigger insurance company to sign on with it.

The CEO of Supersure is Howard Makler. Notably, Makler was a part of a company named Innovation Refunds. It has sponsored the UFC in the past. A year or so ago, Makler interviewed White (and vice versa) as part of some sort of Innovation Refunds marketing piece. In the interview they talk about White working through COVID-19.

TNT Sports and DAZN announced on Thursday a new partnership that will put boxing on live television in the United States. “The Fight” will feature monthly boxing events featuring multiple promotions. The first event starts on July 4th of this year.

The agreement will see fight night presented on TNT Sports’ U.S. networks while streaming globally on DAZN. The telecasts will feature different promotions including named in the release Top Rank, Matchroom Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, and Queensbury Promotions.

There also will be shoulder programming for the events which will air on TNT Sports’ networks and platforms including Bleacher Report and House of Highlights. truTV, which we all know from NCAA Basketball, will become a place for boxing shoulder programming.

The release from Warner Bros. Discovery indicates that TNT Sports and DAZN will “collaborate on cross-promotion, marketing, and advertising sales.”

Payout Perspective:

For an industry that was thought to be dead, this move brings back boxing back on U.S. television. There was always an opportunity for it, there just needed to be investment into it. The execution and delivery of the events will be key for the success. But, the competition with Zuffa Boxing should help facilitate a revival (if there ever was a need for one) in boxing.

The UFC announced that The Ultimate Fighter is returning with Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping as coaches. It will be the first season on the UFC’s new home on Paramount+.

The series will debut on Sunday, June 14th. That’s correct likely after UFC 250 at the White House TUF will get a big lead-in. Episodes will premieres every Tuesday.

Cormier and Bisping have coached TUF in three previous seasons. UFC fans were first introduced to Bisping when he won The Ultimate Fighter season 3.

TUF was the spark for the Zuffa that got it national recognition. It first aired on SpikeTV and through different platforms has been a part of the company throughout the years. In my opinion, the TUF franchise meant more before Dana White’s Contender Series as it was portrayed as the only way some of the fighters could get into the UFC. Now, with more opportunities and the fact that most of the fighters on the show will show up in the UFC at some point, there’s less stress about who will make the company. Once again, it makes it a water-downed version of a previous favorite show.

The Sports Business Journal is reporting that Most Valuable Promotions is evaluating a foray into MMA dependent on its May 16th show. The move could apply at least a modicum of pressure to the UFC which has been less than stellar with its past several shows.

Nakisa Bidarian told SBJ that if the May 16th event featuring Ronda Rousey taking on Gina Carano is a success it could be “…involved in MMA over the long term.”

MVP has worked with Netflix in the past including the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson event in November 2024. The telecast drew a peak viewership of 65 million concurrent subscribers and overall a total of 60 million homes. In addition, it has put together other boxing events with Netflix including a Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano headlining fight in July 2025 that drew 6 million global viewers and 4.2 from the U.S.

With the Netflix-MVP relationship seemingly strong, there could be a market for MMA events on the subscription-based platform. Despite the weekly Monday Night Raw events on Netflix, it seems as though the company does not want to get into an episodic relationship with sports. However, its clear that Netflix prefers tentpole events in which it can draw a big viewership (and advertisers/sponsors) for the “one off” events.

The SBJ article notes that if they proceed, MVP would be selective about the events it puts on in MMA.

Payout Perspective:

Although there’s no way that MVP could compete with the UFC, it may act as a disrupter in the MMA space which may make Dana White make quality control adjustments to the UFC product. Social media has not been kind to the last several UFC cards and the release of the much-anticipated White House card disappointed. MVP adding MMA to its portfolio by hiring some older stars plus mixing in some unsigned (or excommunicated talent such as Muhammad Mokaev) may make a dent in the fractured MMA space.

Programming Insider reports that Friday Night Smackdown on the USA Network drew 1.508 million overall viewers. The telecast drew 0.43 in the A18-49 demo.

Friday night was the big reveal in storyline for Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton as it was revealed that the mystery caller was Pat McAfee. According to Dave Meltzer (revealed in a tweet), the call to insert McAfee into this feud was outside of WWE creative as it was Ari Emanuel that made the call. While we do not know the veracity of the report, one might conclude with ticket sales off, TKO is making the call to have as many social influencers be a part of Wrestlemania as possible.

The telecast was up 15% from the previous week as we are two weeks away from Wrestlemania. In addition to the overall ratings, the show was up in the important 18-49 demo. The ratings did well against the Women’s NCAA Final Four which was the top-rated telecast on Friday night.

Joshua Van’s first title defense has been pushed back a month due to an injury suffered by the flyweight. Van was slated to defend his title against Tatsuo Taira at UFC 327 in Miami.

Van’s injury is being described as minor and likely the reason it was only pushed back a month to be a part of UFC 328.

Van was in the corner of teammate Dakota Hope this past Saturday in Las Vegas and did not look like he was in any discomfort so its a good sign he’ll be ready in May at UFC 328. The main event will see Khamzat Chimaev face Sean Strickland for the middleweight title.

UFC 327 will suffer as Jiri Prochazka takes on Carlos Ulberg in the main event. The fight is essentially a title eliminator to see who fights Alex Pereira.