Saturday night saw the UFC and Jake Paul-led MVP MMA battle for viewers’ attention. And Tapology seems to have a clear winner on its hands. While the Dana White-led promotion remains the undisputed Goliath of the sport, MVP MMA appears to have embraced the role of David. And delivered a card that broke the record-keeping site’s all-time record.
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“We don’t normally go into our usage numbers,” Tapology’s official X account posted. “But for whatever it’s worth, in terms of the discussion of whether anyone was tuning in to watch MMA yesterday, it was by far the biggest traffic day in our history. Not even close. One of those new records where you don’t expect to top it again for a good long while.”
And the huge wave of traffic makes sense. MVP MMA’s event in Inglewood, California, saw Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano make their return to the sport after a decade. Francis Ngannou fought for the first time since his separation from PFL, where he had fought just once. Nate Diaz and Mike Perry collided in the cage.
In comparison to that, the UFC’s Fight Night card in Vegas, headlined by Arnold Allen vs. Melquizael Costa, appears to have been overshadowed. The card lacked the sort of big names that can rival the Rousey vs. Carano lineup. Despite that, some changes were made to the Vegas card. Some fights that were canceled due to withdrawals were brought back with new opponents.
Despite the changes, however, MVP MMA’s card came out on top.
FWIW the "double header" nature of the evening was certainly important. While not a prominent card, Melky vs Costa is still UFC, and UFC always brings traffic. We don't have much of a reference point to guess at what the MVP card would have done if it were standalone. KSW and Show more
“FWIW, the ‘double header’ nature of the evening was certainly important,” Tapology added. “While not a prominent card, Melky vs Costa is still UFC, and UFC always brings traffic. We don’t have much of a reference point to guess at what the MVP card would have done if it were standalone. KSW and Oktagon cards earlier in the day are also good lead-ins to warm up the hardcore+Euro users.”
The record-keeping website also noted that it expects similar numbers for the Freedom 250 card and Conor McGregor’s highly anticipated comeback fight at UFC 329 during International Fight Week on Saturday, July 11. Interestingly, Dana White announced McGregor’s return against Max Holloway during an Instagram Live session on Saturday.
And this move didn’t sit well with Jake Paul, the co-founder of MVP.
Jake Paul brands Dana White and team ‘Little insecure boys’
White’s announcement came as Francis Ngannou was making his ring walk during the MVP MMA card. While it’s unclear how much attention Dana White managed to divert to his announcement, Jake Paul was clearly unhappy. During the post-fight presser for his event, ‘El Gallo’ lashed out at the UFC CEO.
“The cokehead is back!” Paul said about McGregor. “Nice. Yeah, that’s cool. Drop it during our event. It doesn’t matter. That just shows how pressed they are. Little insecure boys [are] trying to piggyback off of our event and try to put some news over top of us. It’s not going to work, buddy.”
Paul’s business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, however, was much more level-headed. Or he just wanted to be in McGregor’s good graces since he still wants to make a fight between Jake Paul and Conor McGregor.
“On the flipside, I’m super excited Conor is back,” Bidarian said. “He’s one of the most engaging characters in the sport. I think it’s good for the sport. I’ve said this numerous times, the biggest fight outside of Paul-[Mike] Tyson that can happen globally is Paul-McGregor.”
That being said, while Jake Paul’s MVP is clearly off to a great start, let’s be honest, there was no competition from the UFC. So, the question is, how would they perform if there were legitimate competition?
