UFC is currently on a hot streak of PPVs. After breaking the Australian arena record with UFC 284, the company has delivered another blockbuster! UFC 285 just took place inside the T-Mobile Arena and it featured Jon Jones vs Ciryl Gane in the main event. There was a lot of interest in the fight because of various reasons. It was Jon’s return to the UFC after 3 long years.
On top of that, it was his heavyweight debut and the vacant heavyweight title was on the line. With all of it combined, UFC President Dana White was hoping for mega business in terms of ticket sales. Dana even compared the gate revenue to UFC 205, which generated about $17,000,000. Although UFC 285 did not quite break that record, it had impressive ticket sales nonetheless.
19,471 fans attended the T-Mobile Arena for the fight, which means the venue was completely sold out. In the post-fight press conference, Dana White also revealed the gate revenue and revealed the figure to be $12.15 million. While it was the fourth-highest gate revenue in UFC history, the figure was the highest for any heavyweight fight in the company. So it looks like Jon’s return was financially lucrative for the company.
UFC 285 results and bonuses: Geoff Neal earns a bonus despite missing weight
While UFC 285 had some entertaining fights, it also had one of the biggest shocks in recent memory. In the co-main event of the night, Alexa Grasso defeated Valentina Shevchenko for UFC women’s flyweight title. It was the biggest win of Grasso’s career and the first loss for Shevchenko in a flyweight title fight. Although the result of the main event was not unexpected, nobody could have imagined the domination that Jon showed.
These two did nothing short of deliver tonight 👊 #UFC285
— UFC (@ufc) March 5, 2023
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Jon Jones defeated Ciryl Gane via guillotine choke to become the new UFC heavyweight title. It was an utterly one-sided fight. The main card opened with middleweight prospect Bo Nickal winning his UFC debut against Jamie Pickett. In the next fight, Mateusz Gamrot beat Jalin Turner via a split decision. In the other non-title fight on the card, Shavkat Rakhmonov beat Geoff Neal via a standing rear-naked choke.
WHAT A NIGHT!! How about the performances from these three 🤯 #UFC285
— UFC (@ufc) March 5, 2023
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It was the “Fight of the Night” and both Rakhmonov and Neal were handed $50,000. Although Neal missed weight by 4 lbs, the UFC President was really happy with Neal’s performance and decided to pay him the bonus anyway. In terms of “Performance of the Night” bonuses, Jon Jones, Alexa Grasso, and Bo Nickal, each received $50,000 in bonuses.
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