MMA Fighting reports that the initial PPV estimates from UFC 159: Jones v. Sonnen were in the 520-550K range. If the numbers hold up it would make it the second highest PPV in 2013 behind GSP v. Diaz.
According to MMA Fighting, the UFC had predicted that the show would do at least 500K PPV buys. It is significantly better than the 410,000 PPV buys in his last defense against Vitor Belfort. That fight was somewhat tainted considering Belfort was a late fill-in after the UFC 151 debacle.
Payout Perspective:
Could you attribute the buy rate to the salesmanship of Chael Sonnen or the building fan base of Jon Jones? If the numbers hold up, one would think that the card was a success. Unless you were a Michael Bisping fan, there were no other fights on the card that would compel a casual fan to purchase this event.
His Vitor fight is listed at 450K on Wiki. Once we saw how they got along on TUF. You have to consider this a success. Jones right now is only good for about 450-180K buys. The only time he has ever broke that point was when he had real rivalries in the media with Evans and Rampage. Rampage wasn’t really a rivalry but he talked a lot just like Chael. Their fight did 520K. Evans PPV was a real grudge and sold 700K. So this fight with Chael was Jones second highest selling PPV of his career. One would have to credit Chael for being the difference here and giving him the boost. If Jones would stop being a pus and talk some shit back and sell his fights. If him and Chael didn’t play nice. They would have easily reached 700K that Evans did. Jones will talk shit In social media then get on camera in front of his opponent and put on his zen master act. That just makes him a smart ass in my books and it isn’t winning him any fans. Either be the good guy or be the bad guy. Don’t be a smart ass and pretend to be a goode guy and take pot shots at people.
People just do not like Jones personality. People are just not being his nice guy routine. MMA has had its Coutures and Franklins who you just cant hate. Jones comes off as a fake and people dislike him. He needs to embrace it and start being a prick. right now people either don’t like him or have no opinion. He needs to make everyone hate him. If he did he would be at 700K buys every single fight and threaten 1 million where the right fight comes along.
I agree with BS. The nice-guy, I heart Jesus routine has failed. Just be the arrogant asshole we all know you really are then go out and smash people.
This is def a success its just not the homerun the UFC hoped it would be.
I thought 600-700k buys but people dont seem to realize Sonnen sells when he has heat with his opponent. Him and Jones were buddies on TUF, add to that he lost his last fight and was moving up in a fight everyone knew he couldnt win.
So they upped TUF ratings, did 2.7 mil gate and 550k buys, thats not a failure like some claim, its just not the homerun the UFC hoped for.
@BS
We have the Vitor fight at 450K too but Meltzer reporting now at 410K. Not sure if Meltzer’s is an updated estimate.
Here we go again with the ppv numbers…..all unofficial….lol…so this 520 in a couple of months would be 480? Haha…low numbers with the tuf and master salesman sonnen on d main event…Jones p4p and Nike endorsement.did not help.
..while UFC is busy trying to get approved in new York…top rank is doing a huge show in macau with pacman.check out the article in Macau daily times newspaper…they’re saying it’s going to be huge……whatever happened to the ex nba china guy that UFC hired for china? Haven’t heard any thing new with that….ppv of pacman fight would still cater to the u.s. market but the live event would be the Chinese market(the biggest high rollers)t…bob arum whom Dana calls a moron is laughing straight to the bank….east and west combined….smart idea ims sure zoo shimming would be the undercard
I still don’t understand the incredible troubles in getting an accurate PPV estimate. If anything, I’d expect TV Nielsen ratings to be like that, but nobody has really complained about their methodology as far as I can tell, and people simply take it as truth. But it’s the exact OPPOSITE with PPV numbers. Why is it so difficult. With PPVs, you have X amount buying from Directv, X amount from Dish, X amount from Cox, and so on and so on. And you get the EXACT number. So what’s the issue? Are they all the carriers real anal about sharing PPV numbers for absolutely no reason?
Anthony
These are private numbers. No PPV provider is going to release a companies financial information to the public when it isn’t public information. Even if one did. To get an accurate number. They ALL would have to release the numbers. So the best anyone can do is get a source in as many as they can and estimate based on what numbers have come in. The cable companies is the tough one. Many of the major cable providers have small companies within them and those numbers take time to trickle to the mother ship. Even Dana is on record many times saying it takes months to get a final number on PPV buys. Some events are still on PPV a month after it has ran and still being bought. So if it takes time for him to get the numbers. It is only natural someone trying to “sneak” and get the info isn’t going to get an exact number.
All the info we have shows the numbers are in the ball park and pretty reliable. Coutures contract dispute confirmed reported PPVs of UFC 68. There is tons of fighters today getting a cut of PPV sales. IF their cut was smaller than what is report in the media as the real sales. There would be some fighters coming forward. So far the only one who has said anything was Rampage who has no credibility and is just running off at the mouth because his contract is up.
Jason, BS:
UFC 152 did 410K. UFC 153 with Vitor did 450K.
LOL even more confused. UFC 152 was the Vitor fight. UFC 153 was Anderson vs Bonnar. So Anderson at 153 did 410, and Jones at 152 did 450. I think I got it.
Do we have any idea of what UFC 157 did with Rousey yet? I still cant find numbers and there are already numbers for PPVs after it. Strange!
Chances are Rousey fight got really low ppv…..because they won’t release any gossip on the numbers thru independent “media”
LOL I see why your name only has 4 letters.
Per Meltzer, Rousey-Carmouche did around 450,000 if memory serves.