Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer estimates UFC 215 this past September drew 100,000 buys. Also, last week’s UFC 216 likely drew around 120,000 buys.
The last two UFC PPVs have been lackluster. UFC 215 was marred by Ray Borg needing to pull out of his championship fight with Demetrious Johnson. Ironically, the main event for UFC 215 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was Valentina Shevchenko and Amanda Nunes. In July, Nunes pulled out of her fight due to health issues. UFC 216 in Vegas featured DJ-Borg and Tony Ferguson versus Kevin Lee. Last week’s event dealt with the tragedy of the Las Vegas shootings on October 1. It almost lost its main event as Lee was granted an extra hour to cut a pound.
Only UFC 214, which featured the rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier has drawn significant PPV buys this past summer with an estimated 850,000 PPV buys. Of course, Jones was flagged once again by USADA which placed an asterisk next to a really good comeback.
UFC 216 – 120,000
UFC 215 – 100,000
UFC 214 – 850,000
UFC 213 – 125,000-150,000
UFC 212 – 167,000
Payout Perspective:
We probably are not surprised by the results of the last two UFC PPV buy estimates as each card had its issues. The numbers reflect that the casual fan will only come out for big name fighters. The last several PPV cards have dealt with injuries and last-minute scratches. These failing will likely come to an end November 4th when GSP returns to fight Michael Bisping in New York. But, the UFC will need to figure out how it should address some of its PPV cards to address the low buy rates.
Leave a Reply