Jake Paul aimed to challenge the UFC’s monopoly in the MMA market with Most Valuable Promotions’ (MVP) debut event in the sport this past Saturday. But the recent attendance record shows that his promotion still fell short against UFC’s last event at the same venue.
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According to MMA journalist Dave Meltzer, who was sharing a Wrestletix report, the MVP MMA 1 card, headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, drew 15,795 spectators to the Intuit Dome in California, not a small number for a promotion’s inaugural event. However, the attendance still fell short of the arena’s total capacity of over 18,300 seats. This leaves the event with well over 2,500 seats unsold.
In response, Jed I Goodman shared UFC 311’s figures from January 2025. The event, headlined by Islam Makhachev and Renato Moicano, at the same Intuit Dome pulled in a record-breaking attendance of 18,370, with about 15,717 tickets sold. Here, Dana White’s promotion recorded a live gate revenue of over $10 million, the largest in California history for an MMA event.
However, the event was not without its own complications. The original main event between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan fell apart after Tsarukyan withdrew late, forcing Renato Moicano in as a replacement. Then, as a result of the Southern California wildfires, more people couldn’t show up for the event. Despite these issues, fans showed up and the UFC declared it a sellout.
Indeed, Netflix and MVP’s debut MMA event fell short of producing a sellout crowd at the Intuit Dome. However, it definitely silenced early criticism that the arena looked empty when the show began, as well as early reports that suggested poor ticket sales.
The one UFC event held at the Intuit Dome: UFC 311 Announced Attendance: 18,370 Per CSAC: Tickets Sold: 15,717
The attendance for Saturday's event at the Intuit Dome was 15,795 according to Wrestletix. I expect actual paid numbers through the commission to be released. The idea the building was empty was ludicrous but it was not sold out.
While it didn’t break records for live gate, there could be several reasons why MVP’s inaugural event fell short. Ben Askren, speaking on his podcast with Daniel Cormier, offered one explanation for the shortfall.
He argued that the card lacked genuine competition. All highly favored fighters on the main card won by stoppage, which may have made it difficult for fans to stay emotionally invested in the entire card. But the live attendance record only tells part of the story.
Tapology reports massive traffic during Jake Paul’s MVP MMA event
When it comes to fighter and event statistics, Tapology remains one of the major databases in combat sports, especially MMA, for records and event details of athletes across the world. However, the site reported that the MVP MMA event on May 16 generated the biggest traffic spike in the website’s history.
“We don’t normally go into our usage numbers, 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,” Tapology confirmed on X. “Not even close. One of those new records where you don’t expect to top it again for a good long while. Except there’s some unusual stuff coming soon with Freedom Fights and Conor McGregor’s return, so who knows.”
While Tapology did not reveal the exact traffic figures, MVP’s event drove a record-breaking surge to the platform, suggesting the card attracted major online attention, even if the live attendance numbers fell short of expectations. In the future, the UFC could potentially surpass those numbers again with one of its marquee events, but Tapology also pointed out that the simultaneous scheduling of UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Costa may have slightly split the audience.
“FWIW the ‘double header’ nature of the evening was certainly important. While not a prominent card, Allen vs. Costa is still UFC, and UFC always brings traffic,” they added. “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 and European users.”
The exact Netflix viewership figures have not been released. But the combination of record Tapology traffic and the promotion’s confirmed paid attendance suggests the card reached a substantial audience online, even if the building wasn’t full.
It is also worth noting that this marked the promotion’s first-ever MMA event, and there is still room for significant growth moving forward if the company can continue putting together more and more competitive and compelling fight cards for fans.
