MMA Payout takes a look at the prior PPV history of UFC 161’s main event fighters. This time around we take a look at Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson and Roy Nelson and Stipe Miocic
Rashad Evans
There’s a cliff that some fighters fall off of in their career and Evans’ last PPV appearance against Little ‘Nog could have been the perilous steps before falling off. One might argue that it was Evans that pushed Chuck Liddell to the edge of the cliff with his stunning KO of Liddell at UFC 88. Henderson could provide the punch to make Evans obsolete.
At UFC 108, Silva was a substitute for Rampage and Ortiz was a substitute at UFC 133 at a time when Ortiz had a resurgence of his career. Notably, these two shows had low PPV buy rates. I realize we dip a little deep with Evans’ past history but look at the buys for 92 and 98 where the buys were reported at 635K and 1M. Impressive compared to the buys we see regularly now.
| EVENT | OPPONENT | DATE | BUY RATE | RATING |
| UFC 156 | Antonio Rogerieo Nogueira (L) | February 2, 2013 | 330,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 145 | Jon Jones (L) | April 21, 2012 | 700,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC on Fox 2 | Phil Davis (W) | January 28, 2012 | 4.7M viewer average | |
| UFC 133 | Tito Ortiz (W – TKO) | August 6, 2011 | 310,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 114 | Rampage Jackson (W) | May 29, 2010 | 1.05M PPV buys | |
| UFC 108 | Thiago Silva (W) | January 2, 2010 | 300,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 98 | Lyoto Machida (L – KO) | May 23, 2009 | 635,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 92 | Forrest Griffin (W – TKO) | December 27, 2008 | 1M PPV buys |
Dan Henderson
We leave out several of Henderson’s appearances on Strikeforce and focus on mainly his UFC appearances since his return to the company against Rampage. His last fight was a disappointing loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 157. We recall that the event was headlined by Ronda Rousey and drew well.
UFC 139 featured Henderson and Rua in a 5 round classic. Wanderlei Silva knocking out Cung Le and Urijah Faber taking out Brian Bowles were also featured on the card. Henderson also appeared in one of the co-mains at UFC 100 with his memorable KO of Michael Bisping after their coaching stint on TUF.
Henderson’s defeat of Fedor ranked fourth all-time in Strikeforce-Showtime history but still has to be one of the biggest fights the company had on the network.
As many recall, UFC 75’s fight versus Rampage Jackson scored 4.7 million viewers on Spike TV. Very good numbers considering that UFC on Fox 2 scored the same rating.
| EVENT | OPPONENT | DATE | BUY RATE | RATING |
| UFC 157 | Lyoto Machida (L) | February 23, 2013 | 450,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 139 | Mauricio Rua (W) | November 19, 2011 | 290,000 PPV buys | |
| Strikeforce: Fedor v. Henderson | Fedor Emelianenko (W – TKO) | July 30, 2011 | 571,000 viewer average on Showtime | |
| UFC 100 | Michael Bisping (W – TKO) | July 11, 2009 | 1.6M PPV buys | |
| UFC 93 | Rich Franklin (W) | January 17, 2009 | 350,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 88 | Rousimar Palhares (W) | September 6, 2008 | 480,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 82 | Anderson Silva (L – Submission) | March 1, 2008 | 325,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 75 | Rampage Jackson (L) | September 8, 2007 | 4.7M viewer average on Spike TV |
Roy Nelson
The only good part about Nelson’s comments about Daniel Cormier this week was that it wasn’t done on twitter. Aside from that, there wasn’t much positive about calling Cormier “Uncle Tom.” At 36, Nelson is still a solid attraction due in part to his KO power. Just look at how most of his fights end.
| EVENT | OPPONENT | DATE | BUY RATE | RATING |
| UFC 159 | Cheick Kongo (W – KO) | April 27, 2013 | 550,000 PPV buys | |
| TUF: Carwin v. Nelson Finale | Matt Mitrione (W – TKO) | December 15, 2012 | 1.3M viewer avg on FX | |
| UFC on Fuel TV 1 | Phil De Fries (W – KO) | February 15, 2012 | 217,000 viewer avg | |
| UFC 146 | Dave Herman (W-KO) | May 26, 2012 | 560,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 143 | Fabricio Werdum (L) | February 4, 2012 | 400,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 137 | Cro Cop (W – TKO) | October 29, 2011 | 280,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 130 | Frank Mir (L) | May 28, 2011 | 325,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC 117 | JDS (L) | August 7, 2010 | 600,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC Fight Night: Florian v. Gomi | Stefan Struve (W – TKO) | March 31, 2010 | 1.6M viewer avg (via MMA Payout Blue Book) | |
| TUF: Heavyweights Finale | Brendan Schaub (W-KO) | December 5, 2009 | 3.7M viewer avg (via MMA Payout Blue Book) |
Stipe Miocic
Miocic is not really a main event fighter and his UFC resume will not scare Nelson especially since his last fight was a TKO loss to Stephan Struve, someone that Nelson knocked out.
| EVENT | OPPONENT | DATE | BUY RATE | RATING |
| UFC on Fuel TV 10 | Stephan Struve (L – TKO) | September 29, 2012 | 313,000 viewer avg | |
| UFC 146 | Shane del Rosario (W – TKO) | May 26, 2012 | 560,000 PPV buys | |
| UFC on Fuel TV 1 | Phil De Fries (W – KO) | February 15, 2012 | 217,000 viewer avg | |
| UFC 136 | Joey Beltran (W) | October 8, 2011 | 225,000 PPV buys |
Payout Perspective:
Another summer, another Canadian card that fell victim to the injury bug. But, Renao Barao v. Eddie Wineland and Shogun v. Little Nog probably would not have moved the dial dramatically. Evans-Henderson is a very good fight but there’s no support on this card for a casual viewer to buy this PPV. It will be very interesting to see where the buy rate lands for this card.
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