So you watched the MVP MMA event on Netflix this past Saturday night, and you have some questions about what you saw. It’s understandable.
This sport is a weird and occasionally wonderful world, but it’s also something of a niche sport that takes some getting used to. We can’t expect a newbie like you to grasp it all immediately.
That’s why it seemed worthwhile to reconvene here the Monday after. We’ve all had a chance to calm down and catch our breath after Ronda Rousey’s 17-second submission victory over Gina Carano, so it’s a fine time to address your questions and concerns as a new MMA viewer considering whether or not to go all in and join the fandom.
Go ahead. This is a safe space.
Question: Was that main event fixed? That’s what me and my friends online have been saying. Are we right?
No. I know I just said this was a safe space, but you look dumb saying that and you should stop. This wasn’t a fix. There are very few fixes in the history of MMA. It was just a mismatch, and those are a lot more common. Rousey was always going to beat Carano. Her prime as a fighter was not only much greater but also significantly more recent. Carano had not fought in 17 years. Even the best version of the fighter she once was would have gotten taken down and submitted by essentially every version of Rousey. This result was really not surprising.
Q: Oh come on, it only took 17 seconds! How is that even possible?
I don’t know how to tell you this, but this was not even Rousey’s quickest victory. She won a UFC title fight in 14 seconds back in 2015. The year before that she won one in 16 seconds. Starting fast and finishing quickly is kind of her whole deal. Of all her pro wins, only one came past the first round.
Q: But the other woman just gave up right away and then didn’t even seem very sad to lose. Is that normal in this sport?
No, but neither is making a disclosed payout of at least $1 million for 17 seconds of fighting. Believe it or not there are a couple known defenses for that armbar. But Carano let her arm get extended before she could even begin any of them, and at that point it’s a choice between submitting and getting your arm horribly mangled. Rousey has proven she’s willing to do the latter to opponents who forego the former.
Q: Was this event a success? Seemed like there were a lot of empty seats.
It did look that way during portions of the broadcast, but some of that might have been the visual effect from the lights on the seats at Intuit Dome. Total attendance was reported at just north of 15,000. We don’t know yet how much of that was paid and how many comped tickets may have been given out, but it’s comparable to what the UFC did in the same building last year.
This event was also reportedly a top performer for Netflix. I can tell you that, for websites like this one, it brought in huge traffic numbers. As in, way more than your typical UFC event does.
Q: Did UFC fans like it? Seemed like you guys argued a lot among yourselves over all this.
It does seem like that, doesn’t it?
There’s some weird tribalism that goes on with some of this stuff. That’s happened before when there have been actual would-be competitors to the UFC. But there really haven’t been many of those in recent years. Some fans have a strong sense of loyalty to the UFC as a company. Some are even big fans of specific company executives. They don’t seem to want there to be any serious alternative. But a lot of us like the fights and the fighters — not the corporate entity. You’ll figure out which one you are in due time.
Q: All of the fights on Saturday seemed pretty one-sided. Is it always like that?
It is not. Most MMA promoters aim for a little more parity in the matchmaking. It tends to make for better, more competitive fights. This event saw a lot of big betting odds disparity in the matchups. The fights were so easy to pick that most of our staff got every single one right. That is, uhhh, not always how it goes.
Q: What about the long wait times between each fight? Is that normal?
Sadly, it is becoming the norm. When these streaming services get their hands on a live sports event that people are actually sitting and watching as it happens, that’s an advertising opportunity they don’t really get any other time. They want to squeeze as much as they can out of it, which means they really stretch out the broadcast. It’s much the same in the UFC now that it has ditched pay-per-view for Paramount+.
Q: I liked that one fight between Mike Perry and Nate Diaz. So much blood!
You would absolutely love BKFC. Look into it.
Q: What about the UFC? Are the fighters there better or worse than the ones on Netflix?
Both. Some of the fighters you saw on Saturday are former UFC fighters who would not do well if they were plunged back into the UFC lineup right now. Others, like lineal MMA heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and lightweight Salahdine Parnasse, are really, really good and could definitely beat a bunch of UFC guys right now.
Q: So then why aren’t those good ones in the UFC?
Financially, most of them are doing better outside of the UFC than they would inside of it.
Q: How is that possible? Isn’t the UFC, like, the top organization?
We don’t have time to get into that. But stick around in this fandom and you will definitely have a chance to hear more conversations about fighter pay.
Q: Will these Netflix events will become a regular thing?
Depends what you mean by regular, but I’m a little skeptical. MVP put on a relatively successful one-off event by signing the right names and getting them on the right platform. But it’s not like the supply of those names is endless in MMA. The vast majority of the top fighters are under contract to the UFC. Even some who have retired, like Jon Jones, who you may have seen having a long-distance back-and-forth with Ngannou, still couldn’t return to fight for MVP without first getting out of those UFC contracts.
Netflix only seems interested in big events that swing for the fences. The UFC, meanwhile, hits a lot of singles with its almost weekly Fight Night events, with occasional triples and homers from the bigger numbered events. It’s hard to compete with that. There just aren’t enough free agent fighters out there. At least, not yet.