They create a lot of media noise but not a lot of buys - Ali Abdelaziz claims Jorge Masvidal vs. Colby Covington had a lot of empty seats
Ali Abdelaziz believes that the recently concluded UFC 272 event headlined by Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington didn't generate a lot of pay-per-view buys.
According to the high-profile MMA manager, both Masvidal and Covington successfully managed to create hype for their grudge match but that didn't translate into pay-per-view sales.
Abdelaziz further pointed out that there were a lot of empty seats at the T-Mobile Arena, where the fight took place on March 5 this past weekend. During a recent interaction with The Schmo, the Egyptian said:
"They're good fighters, they're entertaining, you know, the event wasn't sold out, it was a lot of empty seats... I don't think it was a big fight, they create a lot of media noise [but] I don't think that created a lot of buys. This is my opinion but if they did, good for them, I hope they make 100 million each."
Watch Abdelaziz's full interview below:
UFC 272 recorded an announced gate of $6.76 million and an attendance of 19,425 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
UFC 272 recorded the highest gate as well as attendance among all the pay-per-view events organized by the promotion that have taken place this year.
Check out the tweet below:
#UFC272
Announced Gate: $6.76M
Announced Attendance: 19,425
FOTN: Covington/Masvidal
POTN: Holland/Moroz
UFC 2022 PPVs:
UFC 271 Houston
Announced Gate $4.3M
Announced Attendance: 17,872
UFC 270 Anaheim
Announced Gate $5,290,213
Announced Attendance: 17,387
Ali Abdelaziz unimpressed with Colby Covington's performance at UFC 272
Masvidal and Covington went the distance in a one-sided fight at UFC 272. Interestingly, 'Chaos' dominated 'Gamebred' with his aggressive wrestling game from start to finish.
The California native kept Masvidal subdued for most of the fight, managing to land six takedowns and punishing his former teammate with ground-and-pound strikes throughout five rounds.
'Gamebred' did well on the feet and even had a couple of chances to finish the fight with strikes which he failed to capitalize on. In the end, it was Covington's superior wrestling that prevailed. 'Chaos' was announced the winner via unanimous decision.
#BMF Belt should go to Colby Covington UFC 272 https://t.co/1O6MReaD4r
Despite Covington earning bragging rights in his rivalry with Jorge Masvidal, Abdelaziz wasn't impressed with the former interim champ's performance at UFC 272.
According to the Dominance MMA owner, 'Chaos' looked like "sh*t" in his last fight. Abdelaziz also claimed that Kamaru Usman would've finished both Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal inside three rounds if he had fought them that night.
"Colby Covington, he looked like sh*t...I don't think he looked too good in his last fight. If any of these guys who fought last week, in fact [had] Kamaru or some of these guys [fought either of them], they would have got finished in three rounds you know," Abdelaziz said.