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Last week was a busy one for the UFC. The company had their quarterly earnings call and latest SEC filing both make the news cycle. Fresh off the UFC 301 PPV card that very likely didn’t break 200K buys, the promotion is still sitting pretty. Through previously released documentation, we know that they make $20M from ESPN for every PPV event, so when th…

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A few weeks ago, Forbes released an article comparing the finances of the more established and well-known combat sports promotions. While they were correct in their ranking of the UFC at number one and WWE at number two, they seem to have missed some details in their estimations of some of the promotions’ financial standing. We examine their claims to d…

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Last fall, rumors began swirling that Showtime Boxing was being shuttered after their last event of 2023 to the dismay of boxing fans around the world. It would only be a matter of weeks before the rumors were confirmed that not only Showtime Boxing was being shuttered, but all of Showtime Sports, which meant that Bellator was left in limbo. After 38 ye…

The FTC recently announced a ban on all non-compete agreements, including those already in practice. To this point, it was up to the individual state whether they were legally enforceable. Some states, like California, have banned them altogether, while others embrace them. Now, the choice has been removed. But don’t let this wonderful news lull you into a false sense of security. It’s already being challenged with lawsuits, two of which were launched in the state of Texas within hours of the ruling.

In this episode, we take a look at the language of the ruling, what it means, and from there, we go on to examine whether MMA fighters could find it beneficial in some way, or if it even applies at all. Finally, we analyze the specific clauses in fighter contracts that would present the most likely areas for possible legal scrutiny.

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Thank you for checking out the Hey Not The Face! Podcast, a listener-supported publication. We’d be eternally grateful if you could help us by purchasing a subscription and spreading word of this episode by sharing it far and wide.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heynottheface.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heynottheface.substack.com

UFC 300 has come and gone, but since it was such an important card, there’s been a lot of news for us to parse. In this episode, we take a look at the UFC’s claims of how well the card did and estimate how well the card actually did financially. Spoiler alert: It’s a lot.

From there we had a side-discussion about the possibility of a UFC-WWE bonded figh…

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Ryan Garcia shocked the world when he put Devin Haney on the canvas three different times and rocked him a few more en route to his majority decision victory Saturday night. Since then, Ryan has claimed that he successfully trolled the world and he was never having a mental health crisis, proclaimed that he drank and smoked every night of his camp and t…

The lead-up to the boxing match between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia has been anything but traditional or ordinary. Ryan Garcia, either through advice from his management team or strictly on his own, has opted for a salacious, oft-times concerning approach that has left many wondering if he’s even fit to compete. There have been numerous incidents including a purported kidnapping, Live spaces where he’s preached “the word of God” to sex workers, and most recently, showing up with his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, to throw out the first pitch at a Mets game, but being escorted out without ever having thrown a ball. Was there even an arrangement in place for him to do that?

Today’s FREE minisode addresses Garcia’s future opportunities in the event he takes a loss to Devin Haney. We also discuss the ticket sales for the card, what other hindrances there are and finally, we tackle Shawn Porter’s comments that Naoya Inoue needs to have his fights in the US in order to be a superstar. Follow along with our quick outline:

* What’s going on with the ticket sales for Haney vs Garcia?

* Do you think Garcia made a mistake in choosing to fight Haney now?

* If Garcia loses where does he go from here?

* Shawn Porter says Naoya Inoue has to come to the US to be a true global star. Why do you think he’s wrong?

The Hey Not the Face! Podcast is an independent publication. Please consider a paid subscription to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support us.

Thank you for checking out the Hey Not The Face! Podcast, a listener-supported publication. We’d be eternally grateful if you could help us by purchasing a subscription and spreading word of this episode by sharing it far and wide.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heynottheface.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heynottheface.substack.com

With UFC 300 in the books and the antitrust settlement all but ensuring that the promotion will continue doing business as usual, we thought a thorough analysis of what the current state of MMA is, what its future looks like and if any of the more prominent promotions will be around by the time UFC 400 gets here. We look at the UFC’s current and future …

UFC 300 is just hours away and the PR machine is in hyperdrive. From revelations of newly designed gloves to announcements of massively increased bonuses (sorry, Fighters, it’s just for this event), there’s a lot of fluffy, sugary, feel-good stories dominating community media. We decided to tackle three topics to shine a light on some things you may not be aware of.

The glove redesign announcement was the first topic we discussed. While the new hand-gear won’t be implemented at UFC 300, it was revealed as part of the promotion’s marketing campaign for the event, sort of an extracurricular revelation for fans to get excited about. The newly designed gloves are the UFC’s answer to decreasing eye pokes. A user on X (formerly Twitter), Snarky Ginger, suggested that financial penalties were the only way to truly ensure a decrease in eye pokes.

* Lay out the revenue split and the contract language that basically shows how heavy an impact enforcing financial penalties would be to the lower tier, entry level fighters.

Our second topic focused on the announcement Dana White made at the event press conference on Thursday regarding bonuses. White said that after a conversation with Justin Gaethje where the BMF belt-holder asked for the bonuses to be bumped up to $300K, he’d decided to go ahead and make the bonuses for that amount. Fans and media alike roared their approval, causing Dana to grin from ear-to-ear like the Cheshire Cat.

* Explain why four fighters getting $300K bonuses is still wildly exploitative considering how much the UFC will make on this event.

The final topic of the episode centered around a buzz phrase: “12 current or former champions”. That line is doing all the heavy lifting for the marketing of UFC 300. The card is massively stacked, undoubtedly. It’s unlikely we’ll see another card this well booked until the next “00” event. But there is a sobering bit of information that many either don’t know or have forgotten, and that is the stark difference between being a current champion and being a former champion.

* Explain what the financial perks of being a champion are and conversely, how dramatic the change is when you become a "former champion".

The Hey Not the Face! Podcast is an independent publication. Please consider a paid subscription to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support us.

Thank you for checking out the Hey Not The Face! Podcast, a listener-supported publication. We’d be eternally grateful if you could help us by purchasing a subscription and spreading word of this episode by sharing it far and wide.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heynottheface.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heynottheface.substack.com

UFC 300 will undoubtedly be the the most stacked card of the year, but it remains to be seen if it will do the highest PPV buy rate, especially with rumors of a Conor McGregor return this year, but for now, this mega-event is the big one. With 12 current or former champions, it could be the most talent-rich show we’ve ever been treated to, and among tha…