- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,171,373
- Reaction score
- 59
Because California is transparent in disclosing fighter pay, we know that Ronda Rousey took home a cool $2.2 million for 17 seconds of fighting at MVP MMA’s first big show. That breaks down to just shy of $130,000 per second, which isn’t bad work if you can get it. Gina Carano, who was tackled and armbarred in what amounted to a single helpless sequence, received nearly $62,000 per second to stand in as a crash test dummy.
Again, not too shabby, especially for someone returning after 17 years away.
And that’s how they closed the show at MVP MMA: Rousey vs Carano, MVP’s foray into the mixed martial arts. Rousey got to go out on top after a decade away spent in MMA exile, and Carano got to rediscover her love for the sport. Was it the biggest women’s MMA fight in history? Depends on your skew. Because it was on Netflix, the numbers were trending towards astronomical, and we’ll have to wait to find out just how astronomical until they come back.
Was it a fun deviation from the UFC, which was running a concurrent show at the Apex in Vegas?
Hell yes, it was. It’s not Arnold Allen’s fault, it really wasn’t, he tried to liven things up … but the Apex looked like surveillance footage from a mortuary by comparison.
The light laser show the Intuit Dome put on alone was like vintage Floyd Mayweather, and it concealed the truth of a late-arriving Los Angeles crowd. The red tint to the hexagon felt luxurious enough, and seeing Jake Paul sitting in the designated VIP booth attached to the action was … very different. If you think Dana White can promote a card and try to fight the entire roster all at once as Jake does, bruh, you’ve got another thing coming.
Really, it was a fine first show, all things considered. It delivered. There were eight finishes to close the card, which can’t be bad even if most were squash matches. Everyone was throwing down.
Mike Perry and Nate Diaz generated blood aplenty in their Netflix co-main event.
Sarah Stier via Getty Images
As promised, the pay was much higher than your typical UFC. Francis Ngannou, whom we were reminded is MMA’s lineal heavyweight champion, made $1.5 million for his fight with Philipe Lins. In an act of largesse, he handed over his $100,000 bonus to Lins, which means Lins pocketed at least $200,000 all told. Nate Diaz got $500,000, and Mike Perry – who proved he is the most feral SOB in fighting, the genuine “King of Violence” — received $400,000 to crack open Diaz’s features.
It was a macabre scene for Diaz, who was leaking blood from so many cracks and fissures that it streamed down both sides of his body.
The video packages MVP rolled out actually added some human depth to the event. In one, we glimpsed Rousey in rubber boots squeegeeing duck poop at her compound east of Los Angeles, as to show the simple life outside the cage. In another we learned of Carano’s wild early days in Las Vegas, where she ran with the wrong crowd. Drugs, alcohol and murder were all mentioned.
The pacing of the show was pretty good, all things considered, especially since most of the action was ending in knockouts or submissions. There were some online quibbles about that pace slowing down at the Ngannou fight, yet what was the hurry? They were letting the UFC wrap up in Vegas so they could maximize viewership numbers. If one of the initial goals for MVP is to do bigger numbers than the UFC, tugging the reins a bit on the proceedings could’ve been expected.
The UFC tried to detract from the festivities by announcing Conor McGregor’s return against Max Holloway during Ngannou’s bout with Lins, but if anything, it was like having the hosts come by and top off the wine glasses. It just made things more convivial, kept the conversations warm.
Everyone came away happy in the end.
Ronda Rousey and husband Travis Browne embrace after Rousey defeated Gina Carano on Netflix.
Sarah Stier via Getty Images
Personally, it was cool to see so many of the players who’ve come to define MMA in one room. We had “Big” John McCarthy refereeing the main event, and Herb Dean on duty too. There was the cutman Jacob “Stitch” Duran, long ostracized by the UFC, doing his magic. Frank Trigg as a referee, Chris Leben as a judge. Kenny Florian was on color commentary, suave as hell, and Mauro Ranallo was out there making every bout feel like a title fight, especially when Adriano Moraes choked out Phumi Nkuta right at the dramatic end of their three-round battle.
My favorite Mauroisms on the night? When he said that Jake Babian tapped quicker than a credit card was up there, yet it was his reimagining of the old “don’t blink” proverb that got me. Mauro asked the audience to “glue your eyelids open,” which really is practical advice for those us who don’t want to miss any action. Blinking can be hard to control; why leave anything to chance?
As you’d expect, there was plenty of talk about the future of MVP MMA. Ronda made it clear that she won’t be coming back as a competitor, as she is looking to have “more babies.” Carano didn’t shut the door, but at 44 she confessed it would be a lot. Just about everyone else was ready to keep the thing rolling, which is what Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian said is the plan.
To keep it going.
In what was a night of big teases, Jon Jones was on hand to play a cameo role at the desk. The Ngannou vs. Jones fight is one of those that would make catching lightning in a bottle twice possible, yet Jones said — fairly bluntly — that he would need to get out of his UFC contract. His deskmate, Tyron Woodley, suggested he fight Ngannou anyway, to just ask the brokers at MVP to handle the legal bills that would come from being sued. Jones considered it food for thought, but he also mentioned the “A” word to at least temper expectations.
(You know, arthritis.)
Where it all goes is the next question, but it was a solid first show for MVP MMA. The main event was anticlimactic, but Rousey got to be Rousey for 17 seconds, which might’ve played closer to a vanity project than MVP hoped. But in a world of numbers, and with those numbers promising to come back with plenty of zeros, here’s guessing they’ll take it.
Continue reading...
Again, not too shabby, especially for someone returning after 17 years away.
And that’s how they closed the show at MVP MMA: Rousey vs Carano, MVP’s foray into the mixed martial arts. Rousey got to go out on top after a decade away spent in MMA exile, and Carano got to rediscover her love for the sport. Was it the biggest women’s MMA fight in history? Depends on your skew. Because it was on Netflix, the numbers were trending towards astronomical, and we’ll have to wait to find out just how astronomical until they come back.
Was it a fun deviation from the UFC, which was running a concurrent show at the Apex in Vegas?
Hell yes, it was. It’s not Arnold Allen’s fault, it really wasn’t, he tried to liven things up … but the Apex looked like surveillance footage from a mortuary by comparison.
The light laser show the Intuit Dome put on alone was like vintage Floyd Mayweather, and it concealed the truth of a late-arriving Los Angeles crowd. The red tint to the hexagon felt luxurious enough, and seeing Jake Paul sitting in the designated VIP booth attached to the action was … very different. If you think Dana White can promote a card and try to fight the entire roster all at once as Jake does, bruh, you’ve got another thing coming.
Really, it was a fine first show, all things considered. It delivered. There were eight finishes to close the card, which can’t be bad even if most were squash matches. Everyone was throwing down.
You must be registered for see images attach
Mike Perry and Nate Diaz generated blood aplenty in their Netflix co-main event.
Sarah Stier via Getty Images
As promised, the pay was much higher than your typical UFC. Francis Ngannou, whom we were reminded is MMA’s lineal heavyweight champion, made $1.5 million for his fight with Philipe Lins. In an act of largesse, he handed over his $100,000 bonus to Lins, which means Lins pocketed at least $200,000 all told. Nate Diaz got $500,000, and Mike Perry – who proved he is the most feral SOB in fighting, the genuine “King of Violence” — received $400,000 to crack open Diaz’s features.
It was a macabre scene for Diaz, who was leaking blood from so many cracks and fissures that it streamed down both sides of his body.
The video packages MVP rolled out actually added some human depth to the event. In one, we glimpsed Rousey in rubber boots squeegeeing duck poop at her compound east of Los Angeles, as to show the simple life outside the cage. In another we learned of Carano’s wild early days in Las Vegas, where she ran with the wrong crowd. Drugs, alcohol and murder were all mentioned.
The pacing of the show was pretty good, all things considered, especially since most of the action was ending in knockouts or submissions. There were some online quibbles about that pace slowing down at the Ngannou fight, yet what was the hurry? They were letting the UFC wrap up in Vegas so they could maximize viewership numbers. If one of the initial goals for MVP is to do bigger numbers than the UFC, tugging the reins a bit on the proceedings could’ve been expected.
The UFC tried to detract from the festivities by announcing Conor McGregor’s return against Max Holloway during Ngannou’s bout with Lins, but if anything, it was like having the hosts come by and top off the wine glasses. It just made things more convivial, kept the conversations warm.
Everyone came away happy in the end.
You must be registered for see images attach
Ronda Rousey and husband Travis Browne embrace after Rousey defeated Gina Carano on Netflix.
Sarah Stier via Getty Images
Personally, it was cool to see so many of the players who’ve come to define MMA in one room. We had “Big” John McCarthy refereeing the main event, and Herb Dean on duty too. There was the cutman Jacob “Stitch” Duran, long ostracized by the UFC, doing his magic. Frank Trigg as a referee, Chris Leben as a judge. Kenny Florian was on color commentary, suave as hell, and Mauro Ranallo was out there making every bout feel like a title fight, especially when Adriano Moraes choked out Phumi Nkuta right at the dramatic end of their three-round battle.
My favorite Mauroisms on the night? When he said that Jake Babian tapped quicker than a credit card was up there, yet it was his reimagining of the old “don’t blink” proverb that got me. Mauro asked the audience to “glue your eyelids open,” which really is practical advice for those us who don’t want to miss any action. Blinking can be hard to control; why leave anything to chance?
As you’d expect, there was plenty of talk about the future of MVP MMA. Ronda made it clear that she won’t be coming back as a competitor, as she is looking to have “more babies.” Carano didn’t shut the door, but at 44 she confessed it would be a lot. Just about everyone else was ready to keep the thing rolling, which is what Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian said is the plan.
To keep it going.
In what was a night of big teases, Jon Jones was on hand to play a cameo role at the desk. The Ngannou vs. Jones fight is one of those that would make catching lightning in a bottle twice possible, yet Jones said — fairly bluntly — that he would need to get out of his UFC contract. His deskmate, Tyron Woodley, suggested he fight Ngannou anyway, to just ask the brokers at MVP to handle the legal bills that would come from being sued. Jones considered it food for thought, but he also mentioned the “A” word to at least temper expectations.
(You know, arthritis.)
Where it all goes is the next question, but it was a solid first show for MVP MMA. The main event was anticlimactic, but Rousey got to be Rousey for 17 seconds, which might’ve played closer to a vanity project than MVP hoped. But in a world of numbers, and with those numbers promising to come back with plenty of zeros, here’s guessing they’ll take it.
Continue reading...
