UFC BJJ 3 aired for free on the UFC’s YouTube page, and as of this writing, the grappling event has 9,044,212 views.
Headliner Mikey Musumeci was originally ecstatic about hearing the news, raving on social media about this milestone, thinking that his title bout was watched by more than 9 million people. Jiu-jitsu is still very much a niche sport, and valid questions about such a massive viewership number is starting to come out.
Craig Jones calls out UFC BJJ for allegedly buying views to sell to sponsors
It seems that soon after Musumeci brought attention to that 9 million viewership, people started digging around on the massive (and questionable) figure. BJJ star-turned CJI promoter, Craig Jones then posted a video calling out UFC BJJ for allegedly buying views.’
“Credit where credit is due. UFC BJJ 3 had 30,000 concurrent views (during the event), and it’s gone up to 9 million viewers,” Craig Jones said on an Instagram Story. “I don’t think we realize what (UFC BJJ executives) Stephen Tecci and Claudia Gadelha are doing to the sport. That is statistically impossible to achieve those views in such a short period of time.
“I’m glad the money that could’ve gone to those fighters is going to views. They gained 7 million views in four days, while only gaining 25 comments and 1000 likes. I don’t think that’s ever been done in the history of sports!” Jones continued. “And if those numbers are being sold to sponsors… well, I don’t know what to say about that. Bad business.
Jones also noted the low engagement, which is another sign that the viewership could’ve been artificially inflated.
“.1 percent engagement! .1 percent!” Jones pointed out.
Questionable UFC BJJ 3 numbers outdrew every UFC event in history but one
To put that massive 9 million number in context, of all the blockbuster cards since the company joined YouTube in 2006, only UFC 229 has produced more live stream views on its channel than UFC BJJ 3.
That sole event with better numbers than UFC BJJ 3 was Khabib vs. McGregor, the highest drawing PPV event in the history of the company. Somehow, a niche grappling event with Musumeci vs. Carrasco not only came close to the mainstream record-breaking event, it also had millions more viewers than all the other live streams the UFC has put on, ever.
It even outdrew all the McGregor vs. Mayweather press conferences by several million.
Even outside that massive viewership and lack of engagement that Jones mentioned, another anomaly here is when those UFC BJJ 3 viewership numbers grew. A couple of days after the October 2 event, UFC BJJ 3 had over 1 million views on YouTube, which was roughly in line with the numbers from UFC BJJ 1 and UFC BJJ 2.
For what it’s worth, Craig Jones also previously cast doubt on the viewership for those two earlier events, but UFC BJJ 3 was an extreme outlier. While most sports events naturally have the vast majority of their viewers come in live during the event and on replays a day or so later, UFC BJJ 3 was different.
Five days after the event, it reached 1.9 million views. Sports news turnover is incredibly quick, and while numbers will naturally slow down by then, UFC BJJ 3’s numbers only skyrocketed. Well over a week after the event aired, their viewership then grew over four times over, and somehow added over 7 million views. It then completely stopped getting views and remained at 9 million in the week since.
MMA Mania reached out to the UFC for comment on these numbers and Craig Jones’ statements. The promotion has not responded as of publication.
Ariel Helwani floats bizarre conspiracy theory on UFC BJJ
Popular sports personality Ariel Helwani had Mikey Musumeci on his show, where he asked the UFC BJJ Bantamweight champion about these claims of inflated viewership. While the grappler said he has no idea how these things work, Helwani immediately floated a bizarre conspiracy theory.
The 15-time MMA journalist of the year didn’t dispute the claim of fake figures, but quickly said it was probably not UFC’s fault. Helwani implied that it instead could be UFC’s most vocal critics — like Jones — who was actually be behind these fake numbers.
Helwani is, of course, very well connected in combat sports, but is this actual reporting from his sources? Or, did he just automatically assume that UFC would never do anything shady, then immediately pass blame onto the alleged whistleblowers who discovered the alleged shady behavior?
If it’s the latter, then this would be an irresponsible take and “hypothesis” from someone with Helwani’s platform and status.
All three UFC BJJ events were intentionally put for free on YouTube instead of Fight Pass to maximize viewership, likely to try and sell to sponsors and networks.
Contrary to what Helwani stated, being successful on their main business in MMA certainly doesn’t mean “they don’t need” or won’t ever try to inflate viewership to sell a new venture. Just ask how many times Dana White made absurd claims about Power Slap and pretended its viewership outdrew every single sport (and even Taylor Swift!)
