Will UFC 142 be affected by Tim Tebow? The media darling from the Denver Broncos meets Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at about the same time as UFC 142 Saturday night.
The Sports Business Daily reports that Saturday night’s game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos is expected to pull enormous ratings. The perennial favorite versus the best storyline in sports today has the makings for must see TV. As evidence of Tebowmania, Television by Numbers reported that last week’s Broncos-Pittsburgh Steelers game scored a whopping 25.9 rating/43 share. An almost 40% increase from last year’s AFC Wildcard game.
Payout Perspective:
With the news of Anthony Johnson not making weight, the co-main event with Vitor Belfort (the biggest name on the card) may be in doubt if Johnson weighs more than 205 Saturday. This could be the knockout punch to a card that is heavy on Brazilian fighters not readily known to the casual MMA observer. Also, the card is headlined by one of the lighter weight divisions which has not produced in terms of PPV buys. For many NFL and MMA fans, the NFL may win out on Saturday night due to the allure of the matchup.
Tebow will hurt UFC 142 ppv sales. I dont think 142 breaks 250,000 sales. MMA is great but a choice between 142 or the playoffs, thats an easy choice for me.
Tell you what. They had the game on all the big screens at the bar I was at until the UFC started and they switched all but one small TV to the UFC. There was some protest from the football people but they were strongly out numbered.
UFC in Rio with Anderson Silva headlining only did 300K. This event should get much lower numbers. Tebow will have little effect. Even less seeing as it was a blow out before the PPV started. Using a new weight class in the UFC and poor draws. This card was going to be peaking at 250K if it was the only thing on TV. This was a card to please the brazilians. Any buys it gets is just a bonus.
BTW, it was a great event and great fights.
As a die-hard Broncos fan, but also a die-hard MMA fan married to a Brazilian, I had to do some juggling. I purchased and DVR’d the fight while watching the game, then watched the whole PPV after. The fact that the game was such a blow-out early on probably helped, as the PPV started sometime around half-time, and the game was already over by then. It could have been a major issue for bars that purchased the PPV if the game had been close in the second half, but it wasn’t.