MMA Fighting reports the PPV buy rate for UFC 182 to be in the 740,000 to 820,000 range making it the biggest PPV since December 2013.
UFC 182 which featured Jon Jones defending his heavyweight title against Daniel Cormier was heavily promoted. It received higher than average attention and resulted in the best UFC buy rate in over a year. In addition, reports of packed sports bars and movie theaters to watch the event showed that the buzz featuring a contest between bitter rivals appealed to many.
For Jones, it was the best PPV buy rate since his UFC 145 main event drew 700,000 PPV buys. That event was sold based on a bitter rivalry as well. At that point, Jones was thought to be a PPV star.
UFC 182 was the best PPV buy rate since UFC 168 in December 2013 which drew 1,025,000.
Dana White had predicted the event to draw 750,000 PPV buys and then indicated it would exceed that amount immediately after the event.
As pointed out by Dave Meltzer in the MMA Fighting article, UFC 182 went up against the NFL Playoffs featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens which drew 28 million viewers. It was one of the biggest TV audiences for an NFL Wildcard game in the NFL’s history.
Payout Perspective:
There was a time when Jon Jones was thought to be the next PPV star and draw this type of buy rate regardless of his match-up. This has not come to full fruition and with the revelation that he used cocaine prior to UFC 182, it may taint his image. The interest for this fight was greatly aided by the media day brawl back in August and the subsequent venom between the two fighters. The UFC picked up on this and packaged it into slick promos and focused on the one fight rather than take time to focus on others. The marketing for this fight worked and its reflected in the buy rate.
For those wondering, Google searches for UFC 182 were at 400K over fight weekend. The event drew enormous traffic on MMA web sites; an average of over 1 million viewers watched the Prelims and a record-breaking rating for the post-fight show on FS1. All of this amounted to a PPV buy rate somewhere between 740K and 820K. Do you think it should have done better? Should we just chalk this up to new expectations when it comes to PPV? The good news was that all of the promotion provided a great deal of interest and 2015 is off to a very good start PPV-wise.
It was the perfect storm of PPV event undefeated fighters, real hate, and good promos. But that buy rate shows the shedding of fans that the UFC has done. Then again Jon Jones next fight will tell the tail will he get a permanent boost or was this a one fight deal? Only time will tell.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
SOME PEOPLE EATING SOME SERIOUS CROW ON HERE!!!!
LEON THE SCHMO WHERE YOU AT???????
HAHAHA!!!
“UFC 175 did the same prelim viewership – don’t know Google searches Jason? – so I’m still guessing in the 500 range.”
-Leon The Schmo
“By the way that ppv apparently didnt hit 500k and that means Jones is making less than 1mil for the fight.”
“This ppv hits 400k if they’re lucky”
-The Gayest
“300k!! and we will wait till march for the news that will lie and say 425K when no one gives a fuck anymore!”
-Saldamuthafuckingqueef
How does it feel to eat crow like this???
I’ll wait for the excuses or the bullshit spin.
Clearly lying.
No one bought that shit.
Am I suppose to believe this?
Hey D, Mayweather hit 925k ppv last fight, but for some reason you claim thats bullshit?
So Im callin this one bullshit.
“Hard to see how any UFC PPV can break 800k at this point.”
-Chang
” Whats your excuse for Jon Jones’ & Cain Velasquez’ horrible ppv numbers? They are two young bonified stars and cant draw shit?”
-Fightbusiness
HAHAHAHAHA!!! THE GAYEST!!! LOOK AT HIM SQUIRM!!!
bahahaha UFC and friends at an all new low, counting the total capacity of all bars showing this fight as individual ppv buys. But I suppose its at least one bit of good news that they needed after a year or more of nothing but bad news. How much did they pay to get these bullshit numbers reported? WOW somebody actually bragging about this shows the sad pathetic existence and desperation to cling to anything remotely positive but ignoring the pathetic ticket sales this event did.
HAHAHA!! I KNEW SAL WOULD COME UP WITH A BULLSHIT SPIN!!
THESE WEREN’T BAR NUMBERS YOU DUMB FUCK!!! THEY WERE PURE PPV BUYS!!!
SAL IS DESPERATE!!! LOOK AT HIM SQUIRM!!!
HAHAHAHA!!
Were they D?
I dont know.
Mayweather-Maidana II did 925k but you claim thats bullshit.
Why is that D?
THE GAYEST!!!!!!
Great prediction fucking idiot!!!
HAHAHA!!
D you know that May-Pac is almost finalized and were probably going to get those two fighting twice this year.
Add in Cotto-Canelo and your looking at 740k like chump change.
Mayweather-Pacquiao will do over 3mil.
Both fights will do that while Cotto-Canelo will hit 1m.
Your 740 aint shit
NOW THE GAYEST IS ACKNOWLEDGING THE 740+ FIGURE!!!
HAHAHA!! HE’S SO DESPERATE!!!
THE GAYEST!!!
I honestly dont think it hit 740k
I think it probably did less than 500k.
No way that Dana and them would let anything be slighted about this ppv.
They need all the positive press they can get.
Why would this ppv sell 740k when Jones mostly gets around 330k?
No one knows who Cormier is and that rivalry wasnt as big as they think.
This had no where near the buzz that Silva-Weidman II did.
I just honestly think that no matter what the numbers were, that they were gonna say around 740k since anything near 1mil would be called straight bullshit.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
THE GAYEST !!!!!!
HE CAN’T TAKE IT!!!
Im not the one typing in caps with exclamation points all over the place like a Junior in highschool
THE GAYEST!!!!!!
Let d have his moment of glory, it’s not going to last. This was the biggest ppv in over a year and it was far below 168.
What other matchups will top this in 2015?
*crickets*
D don’t get too cocky you have a long way till 5M.
I actually thought the UFC was dead and this fight would only do about 450k so I was wrong on that front. The bad part is is that this is the UFC’s new ceiling. Jones is in his prime. there was bad bllod with Cormier who is an excellent fighter. This fight was super hyped even with a fight at the press conference and all they did was 800k. It was promoted on network tv. It seems the UFC still has a modest sized fan base to my surprise but this shows the sport has peaked. 800k for there biggest fight of the year is above average.
There’s no way to spin this. It’s a good result, especially in the current PPV environment. It did much better than I expected. I would have considered 600k a success.
And I realize we never get to see the real numbers, but I’m sure this is as accurate as Mayweather’s numbers are. If you are a pessimist that last sentence should read, “I’m sure this is as inaccurate as the Mayweather numbers are.”
Garbage… Mayweather-Pac would be considered the biggest failure in the history of sports if it did this number
So we have the best pfp mma fighter, who never was a big ppv draw, we have google numbers, that any mega media company could easily create with paid googlers, we have a prediction and then rumored ppv numbers, but this fight sold very very low tickets. Makes anyone with a brain wonder and question? Cant sell out a show but does a record ppv? I say complete fucking rubbish!!! Sell the lies to some dumb fuck stick that doesn’t know any better. Like our girl D. BTW there is no way of knowing one way or another what this did on ppv you fuck tard! I say bar numbers prove me wrong!!! Dana now lying again about JJ and rehab! you cant make this shit up!!!
HAHAHA!!! LEON THE SCHMO COMING AT THE END OF 2015!!
Leon, unless the fight gets scrapped this means after the first month of this year, they will already be well over 1m buys. You must be gettin’ nervous.
Oh and nice prediction. HAHAHA!
Sampson, this was by no means the fight of the century in mma like that is for boxing. This was just a strong matchup by two elite fighters that hated each other. No where near that level of fight for mma.
HAHAHAHA!!! LOOK AT SALDAQUEEF!!! HE’S SELF DESTRUCTING!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!! LOOK AT HIM SQUIRM!!!! HE CAN’T TAKE THE REALITY THAT HE WAS DEAD FUCKING WRONG AGAIN!!!
Diego, exactly. This was a very good ppv. And it happened during a time where the hype for the fight cooled off. It would have been bigger right after that press conference fight. That being said, this number is as accurate as Rafael’s numbers for Mayweather’s ppvs. IE, someone unbiased. Not Espinoza or Schaeffer who will blatantly lie about the numbers. If that were the case, then we would start listening to Dana White and Kevin Iole for ppv numbers.
Thanks D’lusional, pretty much any ppv they put out next would do them over 1M.
After Silva and Weidman the fun is over for you. Here’s some big draws you’ll be squirming over:
Pettis/Dos Anjos
Dillashow 2/Barao
All the ligther weight classes
Cain/Ferdum
Lawler/?
HAHAHA!!! LOOK AT LEON TRY TO SPIN IT!!! HAHAHAHA!!! LEON THE SCHMO COMING SOON!
You see, you are such a stupid fucking idiot, you didn’t realize all of those fighters that were on the shelf last year are coming back including Silva. You should have thought this one through. But your entire argument was that the injuries were going to continue. You better hope they do on a massive scale. Of course they won’t though.
I’d say January is shaping up to be a good month for the UFC. Anything less than 400k for Diaz v. Silva would be considered a bomb, and I think it could easily do 600k or more.
D – remind me of the terms of the wager between you and Leon.
Oh and for the record, for those of you have wagers on PPVs – we are using independent sources. Meltzer, Iole, Dan Rafael et al. are all good. What we won’t accept are numbers by promoters, managers or the fighters themselves. I can already see some folks trying pull some “I don’t believe that number because it sucks for my wager if it’s true” bullshit.
D this is why your name is Delusional. You can’t predict who will and won’t be injured. To say a less than average amount of injuries will occur is plain non sense. My bet is based on a lack of star power, overall decline in interest and business in the US, and the fact that there will be injuries no matter what – there always are.
@diego using the blue book is the best route to go by
Leon, this is why you are a Schmo, you still think that 2015 will be the same as 2014 with nearly every major fight getting replaced due to injury. It was a fluke you moron.
What is funny is now, you are altering it. You initially claimed it was because of the level of injuries. I can get the quotes again if you’d like. Keep trying to spin your bullshit. You’ve already had to eat crow badly and we’ve only had 1 ppv so far.
@Diego, Leon the Schmo bet there will be less than 5m, I bet there would be over this. I also made the bet without knowing they would jack the price up and you know what? It still doesn’t matter, they will hit 5m this year.
5m, you wont hit that.
Your going to need to average around 400k a ppv and you simply dont have the star power to do that.
Jones vs Gus II will do good numbers, if it happens.
But Cain has no one to face that could draw over 350k.
Silva vs Diaz will do decent and future ppvs depend on how well Silva is.
After that then what?
A bout 6-7 ppvs that get 125k-350k?
Mayweather and Pacquiao are looking like they are going to fight each other 2 times this year, and both of those will hit 3m will ease, so thats 6m with just those two.
Then add in Canelo-Cotto(1m) and then Canelo/Cotto vs GGG.(500k-1m depending)
Then add in whatever ppvs happen.
Boxing could hit over 7m this year in ppv.
I’m not altering anything D, your just an ass for assuming. Truthfully that is why I took the bet and I’m not faltering on it – that’s what matters. 5M ain’t gonna happen no matter what the reasons.
@Greatest
JBJ vs Gustaf 1 didn’t do good numbers and I don’t think the 2nd fight would be over 500k (at best). The only time JBJ has done good PPV is when it has been a built-up grudge match over time (Rashad and Cormier). And yea I took the bet on 5M cuz I think it’s pretty safe LOL!
Who else on here actually thinks the UFC will do 5M or > this year in PPV?
Leon – I agree, we’ll use whatever is reported in the Blue Book.
THE GAYEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He thinks Art Jimmerson lost at UFC 1 because he didn’t know the rules.
HAHAHAHA!!
Leon The Schmo, yes you are altering your original statement. You were claiming this happened specifically because of the injuries. You said it very clear that the same thing in 2014 would happen in 2015 injuries wise.
Jones- Gus 1 did poorly because Gus was an unknown. Now, seeing how people realize he can beat Jones, it is going to do good numbers. It should do easily over 500k and most likely more like 600k.
LEON THE SCHMO COMING IN LATE 2015!!
By the way Leon, you better pray to the mma gods that Silva loses to Diaz. Cause he’s getting a title shot if he wins. Haha.
D is a desperate dude lol
Ring a bell?
“These new UFC champs are built of glass. Miss the days of Liddell and Couture. With this kind of injury rate I don’t know how the UFC can keep fan trust.
No, this isn’t something that is just happening in 2014 – it’s a sign of things to come. Unless of course, the UFC can intervene in training somehow.”
” In no way shape or form, are injuries guaranteed to be any LESS in 2015.”
-Leon The Schmo
Sal is a human queef.
Ha no kidding… The top middleweight contender fight just got CANNED at 184. This is just the start and you know it. 2013 had lots of injuries , 2014 did too so will this year. You really are delusional if you think the injuries will just disappear for no logical reason. We’re 2 weeks into the new year and shuffling is already happening as usual – Uriah Hall opponent another example.
” In no way shape or form, are injuries guaranteed to be any LESS in 2015.”
Very true dam I’m wise!
Haha. Look at how desperate you are. A guy gets pneumonia on the undercard and you are claiming a victory. Hahahaha.
2013 had a fraction of the injuries 2014 did moron. Yes, I know ahead of time injuries will happen, my point, was that the level of injuries from 2014 was so unprecedented that it was a fluke to the degree it went. You are saying that it wasn’t a fluke, and that it most likely would continue through this year, which is beyond idiotic to believe. No rational person would take you seriously if you attempted to compare the injuries of 2013 to 2014. It is the difference between night and day.
You are very damn dumb!
You are a moron still rambling about nothing. I made the bet for a variety of reasons and yes, it’s still possible that the UFC has another year like 2014, they have made no changes in policy to avoid it. This point has been made 50 times and you still ramble on like you have zero reading comprehension. Back to the matter at hand A bet is for 5m for whatever reasons and no matter how much bitching, moaning, and time wasting you do.
You define the word moron and contradict yourself left and right. You don’t even realize how stupid and contradictory this shit you spew is, you dummy. You are in a club with Sal and Topps for incoherent morons. The fact that you would compare the injuries of 2013 to that of 2014 goes to show how much of a retard you are.
Yeah, and when they hit 5m, enjoy your new nickname Leon the Schmo.
D are u still moaning over there? Dam how long does your period last? You will eat some serious “crow” when the UFC cancels or changes a ppv headliner, which by their record, should be very soon hahah.
Hahaha. Keep those tears flowin’, I know it kills you to be dead fucking wrong on the very 1st ppv of the year. I guess you are starting to realize that there are way to many big names fighting this year and they will be hitting 5m. You better pray for a ton of injuries. Idiot.
*to should be too
And Leon the Pro will be Leon the Schmo! Hahaha!
Aldo vs. McGregor going down in May. Another solid ppv matchup. You better start to pray for those injuries. You’ll need them.