Dave Meltzer reports that early estimates of this past Saturday’s UFC 226 are slightly under 400,000 PPV buys. Unless this number makes a drastic rise, the numbers reflect the lack of drawing power for the heavyweight main event.
Despite the fact that UFC 226 lost the Max Holloway-Brian Ortega fight, it’s hard to think that the fight for the lightweight title would have increased these prognostications much more. Based on the mediocre prelims ratings of 668,000, it appears that despite a very good gate, the PPV viewership did not feel compelled to watch.
Payout Perspective:
The ratings reflect an uncomfortable trend of big fights not turning up PPV numbers. Cormier has not proven to be a draw on his own. The only times he’s produced numbers was fights against Jon Jones. Similarly, Stipe Miocic has not produced as a PPV star and the only time one of his PPVs did well (450K buys), it was mainly due in part to the curiosity of CM Punk. The good news is that the rumors of Conor McGregor returning later this year and Brock Lesnar’s return in early 2019 should help build for at least two big PPVs. But, the promotion of the “Superfight” between two champs did not seem to work from a PPV standpoint this time around.
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