UFC 224: Attendance, Gate, Bonuses
Amanda Nunes successfully retained the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship in her home country, closing out UFC 224 which took place from the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
A crowd of 10,696 people came out for the event according to UFC officials, making this pay-per-view event the least attended of 2018 thus far. A gate figure was not given. This is approximately 5,000 people less than the UFC 212 event that took place in the same arena last June, headlined by Jose Aldo and Max Holloway (no gate figure was given for that event either).
The #UFC224 announced attendance was 10,696.
A look at the Gate and Announced Attendance of the other 2018 #UFC PPVs. pic.twitter.com/thX3MdwcGJ
— Jed I. Goodman (@jedigoodman) May 13, 2018
The Fight of the Night honor was awarded to the co-main event — a middleweight contest between Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Kelvin Gastelum. Gastelum won via split decision.
THE ONE – TWO!@KelvinGastelum #UFC224 pic.twitter.com/zroic1dDMV
— UFC (@ufc) May 13, 2018
Performance bonuses went out to Lyoto Machida and Aleksei Oleinik. In the opening bout of the main card, Machida scored a big second-round knockout of Vitor Belfort with a hard front kick. Meanwhile, Oleinik defeated Junior Albini in 105 seconds on the televised prelims with the rare, hard-to-pull-off Ezekiel choke — just the second time such a submission has won a UFC bout.
Lyoto Machida turns back the clock on Vitor Belfort! What a front kick! #UFC224 pic.twitter.com/ISzh0nOLfM
— Kyle Johnson (@Maldobabo) May 13, 2018
HE DID IT AGAIN!!!@OleynikUFC with the Ezekiel choke finish at #UFC224 pic.twitter.com/LW0UOWNGam
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) May 13, 2018
All the bonus winners take home an additional $50,000.