What’s the story?
The much talked about return of former women’s UFC Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey ended with the referee Herb Dean saving her from enduring more punishment. Rousey fell short in her comeback effort against Amanda Nunes by getting knocked out in 48 seconds.
She is still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to pay-per-view sales, however.
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Forbes has reported, that according to an early estimate given by combat sports journalist and UFC PPV expert Dave Meltzer, UFC 207 will finish at around 1.1 million PPV buys.
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Even though she sold a million PPV’s to end 2016, it’s clear that the unanimous king of PPV’s is the UFC Lightweight champion Conor McGregor. “The Notorious” headlined three out of UFC’s thirteen PPV’s in 2016.
Also read: UFC News: Conor McGregor draws twice as many buys as the UFC roster did in 2014
Conor McGregor’s pay per views are as follows: UFC 196 against Nate Diaz in MGM Grand Garden Arena, UFC 202 against Diaz again and UFC 205 against former UFC Lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez.
In his newsletter, Meltzer stated that UFC 196’s final tally of PPV buys was at 1,317,000.
He also revealed that both 202 and 205 had broken that mark. It’s estimated that UFC 202 had a PPV buy-rate of 1.65 million. That puts McGregor’s total PPV count at 4-4.5 million buys.
In case you didn’t know...
UFC organised thirteen pay-per-views in 2016. Here is a list of all thirteen 2016 pay-per-views and their buy rates given by Meltzer:
UFC 195 (Lawler vs Condit): 300,000 (estimate)UFC 196 (McGregor vs Diaz): 1,317,000UFC 197 (Jones vs St Preux): 322,000UFC 198 (Werdum vs Miocic): 217,000UFC 199 (Rockhold vs Bisping 2): 320,000 (estimate)UFC 200 (Tate vs Nunes): 1,009,000UFC 201 (Lawler vs Woodley): 240,000 (estimate)UFC 202 (Diaz vs McGregor 2): 1,317,000-1,650,000UFC 203 (Miocic vs Overeem): 450,000 (estimate)UFC 204 (Bisping vs Henderson 2): 290,000 (estimate)UFC 205 (Alvarez vs McGregor): 1,317,000-1,400,000UFC 206 (Holloway vs Pettis): 150,000 (estimate)UFC 207 (Nunes vs Rousey): 1,100,000 (estimate)
The heart of the matter
McGregor with his brilliant fighting skills and even more entertaining mic skills has perfected the art of selling over a million pay-per-views. “Mystic Mac” has an exciting fighting style based on his great stand-up skills which even the new followers of the sport happen to love.
He is brilliant in the pre-fight build up to a PPV. His highly entertaining interviews and other media interactions in the build-up to his fights are sensational. Rousey and McGregor both are quite easily the biggest draws in UFC today.
What next?
McGregor and Rousey have sold the most number of pay-per-views. They are the fighters with the biggest drawing power in the UFC. This will surely prompt both of them to command even bigger paycheques in the future.
Rousey may not return soon but McGregor will surely sell even more pay-per-views in 2017.
Sportskeeda’s Take
Without Rousey at UFC 207 and Brock Lesnar at UFC 200, McGregor would have sold more PPV’s than all the others combined. This makes him the undisputed king of pay-per-view buys. However, it raises a very serious problem for the UFC.
Lesnar and Rousey are unlikely to return in 2017 and Jon Jones is also serving a suspension. So, the UFC might face some serious issues in selling pay-per-views this year.
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