How will UFC 190 fare Saturday? It’s the second straight event where Ronda Rousey is the selling point for the PPV.
The last time out, Rousey and Cat Zingano drew approximately 590,000 PPV buys at UFC 184 in February. It was a success considering the undercard was not very strong. We predicted 184 to draw between 350,000-375,000 PPV buys. However, with the event in Los Angeles, there was a good amount of media coverage which probably helped. She drew 1 million google searches on fight night and another 200,000 on Friday.
Prior to UFC 184, she drew only 350,000 PPV buys for UFC 170 against Sara McMann.
This time around the UFC is garnering some google searches. Perhaps a bit of those searches have to deal with the passing of Rowdy Roddy Piper and that Rousey has indicated that he is dedicating her fight to his memory. Rousey, a pro wrestling fan, drew her nickname from Piper.
August PPVs are not usually strong so UFC 190 should be interesting. Last year, the UFC cancelled August’s UFC 176. In 2013, the UFC had two August PPVs UFC 163 (180,000 PPV buys) and UFC 164 (270,000 PPV buys) which drew a combined 450,000 PPV buys. In 2012, a Benson Henderson-Frankie Edgar fight drew just 190,000 PPV buys. (All PPV buys via MMA Payout Blue Book)
Payout Perspective:
One might expect that UFC 190 will exceed the past 3 August PPVs. However, there are several things going against the PPV. First, the lack of media hits for Rousey this week. Maybe it’s unfair to compare the exposure she received with a PPV in Los Angeles, but clearly being in Brazil did not help. Even the Embedded episodes seem to come out a little slower this time around. Second, Saturday night PBC will hold its first major event on ESPN with Danny Swift fighting Paulie Malignaggi. It will be interesting to compare the UFC Prelims ratings on FS1 with the boxing ratings on ESPN as the two overlap. Will combat sports fans defer to boxing instead of paying $60 to watch Rousey likely destroy her opponent? We shall see.
JF says
350k sounds right to me.
Chris says
Most are saying 500k, some think it could do more. She did a million google searches two days before the fight.
Ronda is a superstar and even a mismatch squash fight from Brazil is gonna do big PPV buys.
McGregor and Ronda are mega stars.
Fight Fan says
Dana white said a few years ago “women will never fight in the ufc” lol now they’re their main draw, talk about having to cave to get attention.
d says
Hey fag fan aka Sampson, your Buffalo Wild Wings didn’t show the Mayweather-Pacqauio fight. How does that make you feel?
Fight Fan says
Actually they did show it and It was a packed house, part of the 4.4 million buys they did.
d says
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/blog/2015/07/buffalo-wild-wings-defends-decision-to-not-show.html
That also would not have been part of the 3+m buys. Those bar licenses aren’t factored into the buy rate. You need to educate yourself on this subject.
The Greatest says
Some BWWs showed it.
It says it in the article.
D do u not read what u post?
d says
The only two mentioned in the article that aired it were the two in Hawaii. That isn’t to say that those were the only two, but the clear cut point of the article was the fact that they refused to signed an exclusive contract and the overwhelming majority of BWW’s did not carry the fight.
Now, the idiot above has been telling me how the UFC isn’t drawing interest anymore because BWW’s doesn’t carry their fights at his stupid location. I wonder how he feels about Gayweather’s popularity seeing how nearly all BWW’s didn’t carry Gayweather-Pacquaio.
Chris says
5 mill google searches, 1 mill tweets last night which is more than 189 and like 3x what she did at 184.
early trends showing this is gonna be another big number for UFC.
For some reason that makes boxing fans really mad, its good when both combat sports are doing good.
Cant wait for Canelo/Cotto, hope that shit does a million buys. Hope GGG pops a big number as well.
Most expected 350-500k for this card but it could top 700k which would be amazing for this show in Brazil.
Its gotten to the point Ronda vs anyone will draw, she’s mainstream, like Tyson, people want to see how she finishes and how fast she can do it.
If they put tate fight on McGregor/Aldo card that would be huge but ROnda/Tate on their own card I think can do a million buys.
The Greatest says
Itll do 500k.
tops E says
Chris is back full time…..hahahaha…ufc needs all the help it can get…haha