Paul Gift

Sports economist | MMA researcher | BJJ 🟪 | Former ABC-certified referee & judge | Former MMA contributor for Forbes Sports & OG Bloody Elbow | All views mine

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

“Right now, CBS News is on fire”

Scott Pelley: “We need adult supervision and at the moment we don’t have it. We have people who’ve been installed in these jobs who through no fault of their own have no experience in television. It’s not their fault, but they don’t know what they’re doing. There’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen at 60 Minutes or CBS News before. That is my hope, a return to sanity. A return to honor, a return to courage. We used to have all of those things in abundance and now we don’t. We can save this. It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News, in my view, is on fire”

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

Hell yeah, Vegas!!

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

@DanTomMMA Was telling my friend he’s a Californian now. I guess you’re still Nevadan!

Was pretty quick but jolting

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

Hell yeah, was not expecting that in Vegas. I was like, “What the hell is that? Where am I??”

[EMSC @LastQuake]

#Earthquake (#sismo) possibly felt 26 sec ago in #Nevada. Felt it? Tell us via:
📱https://t.co/QMSpuj6Z2H
🌐https://t.co/AXvOM7I4Th
🖥https://t.co/wPtMW5ND1t
⚠ Automatic crowdsourced detection, not seismically verified yet. More info soon!

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

Hopefully two things will be true at once 🙏

It’s clear as day this is Trump’s Bday UFC. But hopefully the actual programming around the fights will truly celebrate America (excluding the now obligatory lineup of gov’t officials trying to look cool or tough)

[MMA Fighting @MMAFighting]

Dana White says the UFC will look to celebrate America at #UFCWhiteHouse

📰 https://t.co/LQc6FtbCQh

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

They never show clips of the South Park episodes making fun of Trump (which are hilarious), but that helps explain some of the SP promos during UFC

[Jed I. Goodman © @jedigoodman]

Efrain Miron, head of content strategy and licensing for Paramount direct-to-consumer tells THR:

We have found that on average, the folks watching UFC on Paramount+ are 15 years younger than our average audience before UFC, so for us that’s a massive unlock...We also then observe what they are watching when they show up on the platform. So far, some of those signals have been really interesting. You have a lot of crossover with the South Park audience, so that’s been interesting for us. So then we take all that information and we say, okay, how do we make sure that when this audience shows up so they’re getting the right recommendations on the service?

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

@jambandsroasted I thought something big happened with construction around my house

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

We all know what his merit was

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

Idk about you guys, but nothing says meritocracy like a home building heir being installed as director of national intelligence with zero experience. Clown Show 2.0 rolls on.

To be fair, it’s gotta be difficult when only the bottom of the barrel will work for you

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

Breaking: President Trump chose Bill Pulte to be acting director of national intelligence. Pulte is currently the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. https://t.co/giszsxhODn

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

I’m excited he’s re-entering the space, but those statements virtually never turn out to be true.

One thing that’s certain is their wage share’s gonna be huge. Outstanding news for folks who prefer to be paid in percentages.

[Jed I. Goodman © @jedigoodman]

Scott Coker is asked about raising $60M. Says it will last at least 5 years.
#HelwaniShow

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

I’m gonna pretend this is for Maximus Holloway. Who outside of Ireland and ultra right wingers gives two 💩s about Conor these days?

[MMA Fighting @MMAFighting]

Conor McGregor’s return prompts huge ticket sales with some seats costing more than $24K each https://t.co/HfuRTmLM5Y

[Home of Fight @Home_of_Fight]

☝️🧠 GSP says that a lot of fighters get their priorities wrong in their MMA career and end up taking too much damage, whereas his number 1 priority was always his health.

“My number one priority as a fighter was always my safety and my health, my second goal was to win and my third one was to please the crowd.

A lot of fighters are not healthy, they mixed up their priorities. If you prioritise the spectacle sometimes you lose braincells.”

(via @MightyMouse)

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

Two of the greatest. Love it!!

[Verbal Sparring MMA @verbalsparmma]

During his concert in Montreal, country star Luke Combs brought out Georges St-Pierre to shotgun a beer with him during his performance of his hit song “1, 2 Many”

A collab the MMA world never saw coming 👊🤠
. .
#ufc #mma

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

That was the fake finish in my ref test. Didn’t look anything like that tho. Those low or unpaid MMA fighter actors need to up their game!

[BJJotter @JiujitsuOtter]

I’m crying, do you know how insane it is to finish an MMA match this way???

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

Oh man, I love it! Exactly what the new rules were designed to prevent. Don’t do some weird ass sideways handstand and think you’re safe from knees to the face

And refs warn the fighters in back how to be grounded if they want to be grounded. He just didn’t listen

[caposa @Grabaka_Hitman]

Shuai Yin thought he was safe, but he thought wrong. Namsrai Batbayar drills him with a knee to the face and takes the RTU Season 4 flyweight final. The new grounded fighter rule in action.

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

That’s an unusual way of describing being oversubscribed, but it’s a nice start.

I’d be amazed if Coker and his partners can keep >50% over the next few rounds tho, which they’re almost surely gonna need

[Jed I. Goodman © @jedigoodman]

Scott Coker tells New York Post Sports:

The investor pool that we put together is unbelievable...When we capped it at the $60M, we could have easily raised another $40M that came in after, that we had to turn away. We capped it at $60M, we said that's it because then there'd be a dilution issue between me and my partners...I didn't want the investors to have more control than we did...We turned away tens of millions of dollars of investment. So, we are well funded and we are capitalized properly, with a great group of investors. Great strategic advisors. When we announce the employees of this company, I think people will be like, 'Oh man, this is gonna be something, a lot of fun.'

Full @Scott_Fontana Interview here:
https://t.co/WaJSZixPXi

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

There are far better options for investing one’s money than into non-UFC MMA. But if you’re gonna do it, Coker’s the man to do it with. As opposed to the folks who voluntarily threw good money into rebranded WSOF

[The Hollywood Reporter @THR]

Mixed Martial Arts Pioneer Scott Coker Plans 2027 Launch of New Global MMA League With $60M in Financing, Including From Tony Hawk https://t.co/Lv4MD7lNP2

[Paul Gift @MMAanalytics]

And I thought settlements had to be approved by judges? But beyond that, this is so insanely wrong

The man-child who tried to steal an election gets to have his puppets settle & toss money around to co-conspirators & no checks & balances are pushing back??

#UFCKeepOurFreedom250

[Chuck Todd @chucktodd]

Every taxpayer needs to read this DoJ produced document that signs off on this unprecedented “settlement.” Just stunning how the political appointees at DoJ conspired with Trump to create this $1.7B slush fund which literally can be used to pay anyone Trump desires. https://t.co/blI8Vn65Yr

[Jed I. Goodman © @jedigoodman]

Herb Dean talks Adriano Moraes/Phumi Nkuta. Breaks down what he was thinking during the finishing sequence.
#HelwaniShow

[Steven Kelliher @Steven_Kelliher]

As an added bit of color to this, I was also struck by the fact that, in terms of the existing, engaged and registered Tapology user base, there was more 'activity' on the UFC event last night from that cohort.

That means the Netflix bump, predictably, touched other segments.