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Rousey legacy remains despite stunning loss

Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.

The mixed martial arts world tilted on its axis this month when a kick to the head floored Ronda Rousey in the main event of UFC 193.

Short term, this figures to be a plus for the UFC. The anticipated rematch of what was tracking to be the most lucrative pay-per-view in the sport’s history, with upward of 1 million buys, figures to do even better than the first go-around.

Long term, it remains unclear what Rousey’s loss means. Should she rebound to beat Holly Holm in the rematch, she almost certainly will do it in front of the most viewers ever to watch a UFC event. Before the fight, Nielsen surveys showed that 44 percent of people knew Rousey and 70 percent of those liked her.

This KO kick sent shock waves through the UFC.
Photo by: Getty Images
Though no longer able to market behind an aura of invincibility, she likely will remain hugely popular, hailed for her ability to evolve and rebound. Should she lose to Holm a second time, it likely will signal the end of an era that has been revolutionary for the sport.

However long that revolution lasts, this much is clear: Ronda Rousey has shaped the UFC as no fighter in its history.

“She in a lot of ways is becoming a gateway drug for the UFC,” said Lorenzo Fertitta, the UFC chairman and CEO, who assessed Rousey’s impact on the sport a few days before her loss at UFC 193. “She’s the first point of contact for the vast majority of new fans. People who aren’t necessarily buyers of pay-per-views or the demo that we would typically market to are coming in to watch and buy the Ronda fights.”

Based on pay-per-view sales alone, it is clear that Rousey has in only three years in the UFC emerged as the sport’s biggest star, not only of today but ever.

Here were the figures heading into UFC 193:

In the 14 years since brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta bought the UFC, the circuit has averaged 394,894 buys per event. The six cards on which Rousey headlined averaged 522,360 buys, or 44.7 percent more than the 361,066 average from the other cards.

In two fights earlier this year, at UFC 184 at Staples Center in February and UFC 190 from Rio de Janeiro in August, Rousey averaged 662,791 buys. The UFC’s other nine pay-per-views this year averaged 335,362.

Though the UFC does not have direct access to demographic data from its pay-per-views, it does know who buys the broadcast directly from its website. Heading into the last pay-per-view, women accounted for 10.3 percent of UFC.tv pay-per-view purchases this year when Rousey was not fighting, but 18.2 percent of purchases of the two cards that she headlined.

A company that does have direct access to those pay-per-view buyer demos uncovered an interesting dynamic while studying viewership for three of the four top-selling UFC pay-per-views of the year.


Audience measurement firm Rentrak, which pulls data from set-top boxes in about 20 percent of U.S. households, found that in each of the most recent pay-per-views featuring stars Jon Jones, Conor McGregor and Rousey, more than half of buyers made the fight their only UFC purchase of the year.

The number was highest for Rousey’s fight against Beth Correia from Rio, which for 63.5 percent of its buyers was the only UFC pay-per-view purchased.

“If an inordinate amount of people are going to tune in to see Ronda Rousey, we believe that’s just going to give us an opportunity to showcase our other fighters,” Fertitta said. “We’re going to be there to sell them on why [they should] tune back in for [the next] pay-per-view.”

When Fox Sports signed the UFC to a wide-ranging rights deal, much was made of the choices the UFC would have to make when deciding which fights resided on a Fox broadcast and which went to pay-per-view.

Turns out the relationship between the two is more symbiotic than most expected.

Higher pay-per-view sales indicate greater interest, which translates to higher ratings on the Fox Sports networks.

The ratings for the card of preliminary fights that air on FS1 before a pay-per-view typically rise and fall based on how well the pay-per-view sells.

That clearly has been the case when Rousey fights. Ratings for UFC prelims are about 37 percent higher in key demos — both male and female — on the nights on which Rousey headlines the pay-per-view. Among women 18-34, ratings for prelims on FS1 are 58 percent higher when Rousey fights later in the night. Among women 18-49, they are 61 percent higher.

Of the four most-watched prelim shows on FS1, two led into pay-per-views headlined by Rousey. The most watched of the eight seasons since the UFC’s “Ultimate Fighter” show moved to Fox was the one on which Rousey was a coach.

“Whenever she is on our air, there is an impact,” said David Nathanson, head of business operations for Fox Sports. “Even the tease that she is going to be on pay-per-view later that night has a dramatic impact.

“The people who are tuning in to UFC prelims and FS1 ‘Fight Nights’ and ‘UFC on Fox’ nights, those aren’t just hard-core UFC fans anymore. Those are people who have begun to appreciate the sport of MMA overall. It appeals to a much broader audience than it did five years ago.”

While there is no question Rousey has broadened the audience, it remains to be seen what will become of that audience now that she has lost — or, worse yet, loses again.

“We’ve never really had a star historically who has what I’d call the ‘Tyson factor,’ where whoever Mike was fighting, people really didn’t care,” Fertitta said. “We have that same thing here with Ronda Rousey. We’re doing what we can to put her in the most competitive fights, but in the end people just care about watching Ronda.”

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