
**UFC 194 will go down as one of the most memorable shows in company history, setting a new gate record for Las Vegas with $10.1 million (this is not a company record as they did do a higher gate for UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto in 2011). It blows away the previous UFC record for a Las Vegas gate, which was UFC 189 from this past July, which did $7.2 million. It is razor close but it appears that last night’s gate will slightly edge the Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto fight from this past September and rank 20th all-time in the state of Nevada for all combat sports events.
The main event saw Conor McGregor immediately land with his left and send Jose Aldo to the mat, while Aldo was still able to land a left of his own going down and then McGregor finishes him with hammer fists in all of 13 seconds to become the undisputed featherweight champion. It was a remarkable performance and is as fascinating to watch from a business perspective as it an athletic one. McGregor is one of the sharpest minds that has ever competed in the sport and has the metrics to leverage just about anything deal he wants, he has cited the idea of co-promoting events with Zuffa in the future and if McGregor pushes that forward, it would be something entirely different that the sport and the UFC has never dealt with in the past. UFC’s public relations director Dave Sholler stated that metrics for the fight are “through the roof” and may top the number that Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm did last month.
The next step for McGregor will be an interesting one as his coach Jon Kavanagh told UFC president Dana White after the fight that this was the last time McGregor would cut down to featherweight. McGregor stated otherwise at the post-fight press conference and said he refuses to vacate the title and wants to fight at both featherweight and lightweight. Dana White did not attend the press conference and spoke to FS 1 and said that McGregor has the option of fighting Frankie Edgar next or he can fight the winner of next weekend’s lightweight title fight between Rafael dos Anjos and Donald Cerrone.
The attendance at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was 16,516 and the gate as noted was $10,100,000. Below are the results from the card:
*Court McGee def. Marcio Alexandre Jr. by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Yancy Medeiros def. John Makdessi by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Magomed Mustafaev def. Joe Proctor by TKO at 1:54 of Round 1
*Leonardo Santos def. Kevin Lee by TKO at 3:26 of Round 1
*Warlley Alves def. Colby Covington by guillotine choke at 1:26 of Round 1
*Tecia Torres def. Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Urijah Faber def. Frankie Saenz by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
*Max Holloway def. Jeremy Stephens by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Demian Maia def. Gunnar Nelson by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-25, 30-25)
*Yoel Romero def. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza by split decision (29-27, 28-29, 29-28) – The closest fight on the card with Romero easily winning the first round, but wouldn’t say enough for a 10-8 round. Romero and Jacare had a super close second round where Jacare was recovering from the first round and Romero seemed tired. The most controversial moment of the night came when Romero blatantly grabbed the fence as Jacare went for the takedown, Jacare ended up taking him down but Romero reversed and got on top as referee Marc Goddard stood them up, warned Romero about grabbing the fence and allowed the two to stand. In this case, you could easily argue Romero should have lost a point and that by standing them up, you rewarded Romero, who committed the foul as Jacare – even on his back – was better equipped in that position.
*Luke Rockhold def. Chris Weidman by TKO at 3:12 of Round 4 to win the UFC middleweight title – This will go down as a defining fight for the legacy of Luke Rockhold, who was outstanding in this fight. Weidman edged the first round, Rockhold definitely won the second and then Weidman appeared to be on his way to winning the third, when a kick failed to connect and Rockhold was able to mount and nearly finish Rockhold as the round ended and won the round 10-8. The fourth continued where the last finished, where Rockhold was lighting him up with strikes on top and Herb Dean stopped the fight.
*Conor McGregor def. Jose Aldo by KO at 0:13 of Round 1 to win the UFC featherweight title
**The Fight of the Night bonus went to Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman and the performance bonuses went to Conor McGregor and Leonardo Santos, all for $50,000.
**The UFC announced on the broadcast that Johny Hendricks will be fighting Stephen Thompson on February 6th at UFC 196 in Las Vegas in a welterweight fight. Hendricks has hired a new nutritionist to avoid any problems in making the weight limit.
**The UFC will hold their final card of 2015 next Saturday night in Orlando, Florida with Rafael dos Anjos vs. Donald Cerrone for the lightweight title, a heavyweight bout between Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem and the return of Nate Diaz as he takes on Michael Johnson on the main card portion.