Jon Jones headlined the highest-grossing UFC pay-per-view of the last 12 months
Jon Jones is undeniably a box office attraction, and the data supports it.
Endeavor CFO Jason Lublin confirmed this week that UFC 285, headlined by Jones vs. Ciryl Gane, was the highest-grossing commercial pay-per-view of the last 12 months. The official numbers aren’t released, but if you estimate that the pay-per-view sold 750,000 buys on ESPN+, that’s $60,000,000 in revenue. The gate for the event was $12,154,753.10, which made it the fourth highest-grossing UFC live gate of all time.
All of his heavyweight fights will likely be blockbuster events moving forward. He’s hinted at retirement after a Stipe Miocic fight, but that could just be leveraging for a bigger contract. Jones has always wanted the biggest fight purses, and rightfully so. In traditional sports, the athlete that’s the greatest of all time always has the biggest contract. If anyone deserves “Conor McGregor money” outside Conor himself, it’s Jon Jones. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Henry Cejudo’s last chance against Merab Dvalishvili
Henry Cejudo has always reached the pinnacle of each sport that he’s competed in. It’s why he came back. He wanted to defeat Aljamain Sterling, defend his title against Sean O’Malley, then defeat Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight title, becoming the only three-division champion in UFC history. But what happens when you fail to reach the pinnacle? Cejudo lost a split decision to Sterling and failed to reclaim his bantamweight title. He took his gloves off after the fight and looked confused about whether he should retire on the spot or not.
Cejudo isn’t going to be one of those fighters that will compete in non-title fights against random top-10 opponents. If he’s not competing for the highest stakes, he’s not going to compete at all. Though his next fight won’t be for a title, it will be a high-stakes situation, as it’s likely that his career will be on the line. The day after UFC 288, Cejudo called out Merab Dvalishvili, who’s become the boogeyman of the division. This is the perfect fight to make, given the circumstances. Merab won’t fight for the bantamweight title as long as Sterling is the champion and wants a big fight next. There’s no bigger fight for him in the division than Cejudo.
For Cejudo, fighting Dvalishvili is a litmus test for his career. If he bounces back and defeats an animal like “The Machine,” he leaves no doubt that he’s still one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. If he doesn’t, then his ultimate goal of fighting Volkanovski will likely never happen. High stakes.
Quick hits
- Cedric Doumbe, a legendary kickboxer, signed with the PFL.
- Paige VanZant is sick of being fat-shamed.
- Tom Aspinall vs. Marcin Tybura will headline UFC London in July.
- Robbie Lawler will retire after fighting Niko Price at UFC 290.
- Colby Covington said Belal Muhammad has to fight again.
- Demetrious Johnson plans on consulting with Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomdov on retirement.
- Gane wants to fight Sergei Pavlovich in September.
- Nate Diaz will be subjected to marijuana testing for his Jake Paul fight.
- Rafael dos Anjos vs. Vicente Luque postponed to the UFC event on August 12.
- Holly Holm vs. Mayra Bueno Silva will headline the UFC event on July 15.
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