Meltzer: UFC 92 At or Near UFC 91
January 14, 2009
While there has been some skepticism from many quarters concerning Dana White’s claims about the PPV performance of UFC 92, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave credence to the claim in the print version of the WON:
Cable sources indicate the show did about the same numbers as UFC 91, perhaps very slightly lower. That show has been estimated at 1.01 million buys.
In comparing trending patterns, which usually are almost dead-on when it comes to predicting PPV numbers (except when Brock Lesnar fights for some reason), one set indicates, like the cable sources, almost identical numbers to UFC 91, and another indicates the numbers UFC claimed, numbers beating UFC 91 by a solid 10% or more and being the biggest UFC show of all-time. So the show almost surely did great, and there is at least some evidence this could be true.
Meltzer is the holy grail as far as PPV numbers, so the numbers touted by White certainly are rooted in fact. Doing such a big number has to be the surprise of the year and portends big things for the GSP vs BJ card coming up at the end of the month. The UFC has shown the ability to defy the economic gravity in the last quarter, being up when seemingly everything else is down, both in the sports world and the real world. With a strong 24/7 build up that kicks off tonight on Spike, a GSP vs BJ card that would do a good number all of sudden is primed to possibly do a great number, maybe even hitting the UFC 91 and 92 levels.
