UFC 96 Estimated PPV Buy Rate; UFC 80-96 in Numbers

by Eugene Schelfaut on Apr 4, 2009 11:20 AM EDT

UFC Estimated PPV Buy Rates

In The Weekly Wrap, Jack Encarnacao communicates the information from Dave Meltzer:

The pay-per-view buy rate for UFC 96 on March 7th gives the best indication to date of the singular drawing power of Quinton Jackson, who headlined the event against Keith Jardine. The show drew about 350,000 buys, according to The Wrestling Observer. Unlike most of his other UFC bouts, Jackson's fight against Jardine positioned him as the main draw on an entire card, which was low on star power. The UFC sought to match Rashad Evans with Jackson on the show, but the fight would have come too soon after Evans’ title victory over Forrest Griffin in December.

	Main Event	Location	PPV/ Rating	Gate	Salary	Bonuses
UFC 80 Jan. 19, 2008	B.J. Penn vs. Joe Stevenson	Newcastle, England	225,000 buys	$1,250,000		$35k each $140k total
UFC 81 Feb. 2, 2008	Nogueira vs. Sylvia Lesnar vs. Mir	Las Vegas, Nevada	600,000 buys	$2,437,890	$892,000	$60k each $240k total
UFC 82 March 1, 2008	Silva vs. Henderson	Columbus, Ohio	325,000 buys	$2,200,000	$932,000	$60k each $240k total
UFC 83 April 19, 2008	St. Pierre vs. Serra	Montreal, Canada	530,000 buys	$5,100,000		$75k each $300k total
UFC 84 May 24, 2008	Penn vs. Sherk	Las Vegas, Nevada	475,000 buys	$3,732,000	$1,098,000	$75k each $300k total
UFC 85 June 7, 2008	Alves vs. Hughes	London, England	225,000 buys	$2,930,000		$50k each $200k total
UFC 86 Jul. 5, 2008	Griffin vs. Jackson	Las Vegas, Nevada	540,000 buys	$3,350,730	$943,000	$60k each $240k total
UFC 87 Aug. 9, 2008	St. Pierre vs. Fitch Lesnar vs. Herring	Minneapolis, Minnesota	625,000 buys	$2,252,000		$60k each $240k total
UFC 88 Sep. 6, 2008	Evans vs. Liddell	Atlanta, Georgia	480,000 buys	$2,600,000	$1,270,000	$60k each $240k total
UFC 89 Oct. 18, 2008	Bisping vs. Leben	Birmingham, England	1.7 HH rating 2.6 mil viewers			$40k each $160k total
UFC 90 Oct. 25, 2008	Silva vs. Cote	Chicago, Illinois	Trending 300,000 buys	$2,800,000		$65k each $260k total
UFC 91 Nov. 15, 2008	Couture vs. Lesnar	Las Vegas, Nevada	920,000 buys 1,010,000 buys	$4,815,675	$1,118,000	$60k each $240k total
UFC 92 Dec. 27, 2008	Evans vs. Griffin	Las Vegas, Nevada	1 mil buys	$3,468,440	$1,381,000	$60k each $180k total
UFC 93 Jan. 17, 2009	Franklin vs. Henderson	Dublin, Ireland	Trending 320,000 buys	$1,300,000		$40k each $240k total
UFC 94 Jan. 31, 2009	St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn	Las Vegas, Nevada	1 mil buys	$4,290,020	$1,091,000	$65k each $325k total
UFC 95 Feb. 21, 2009	Sanchez vs. Stevenson	London, England	1.6 HH rating 2.4 mil viewers	$1,000,000		$40k each $160k total
UFC 96 March 7, 2009	Jackson vs. Jardine	Columbus, Ohio	350,000 buys	$1,800,000	$762,000	$60k each $180k total
UFC 97 April 18, 2009	Silva vs. Leites Liddell vs. Rua	Montreal
UFC 98 May 23, 2009
UFC 99

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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Comments

Ick

The fact that Rampage doesn’t draw completely mystifies me.

"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR

by Rundownloser on Apr 4, 2009 11:31 AM EDT reply actions

350k on a card that didnt have a title shot..

a card that wasn’t all that deep at all.. so 350k is pretty good in my opinion..

weoweoweo .deviantart .com

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 4, 2009 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions

It isn’t terrible, but Rampage is one of those guys who has gotten more than enough publicity to draw better than this.

"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR

by Rundownloser on Apr 4, 2009 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions

I blame Jardine.. if it was a title fight or against a marketable opponent we'd see better results..

just look at the buys on his fights against forrest, chuck and wandy..

weoweoweo .deviantart .com

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 4, 2009 1:57 PM EDT up reply actions

I can agree with this. UFC 76 (Liddell vs. Jardine) did 475k buys, but that also includes 1) Liddell is much more popular (especially at the time) than Rampge 2) Forrest fought in the co-main against Shogun.

http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com

by Mike Fagan on Apr 4, 2009 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Touche. You’re probably right.

"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR

by Rundownloser on Apr 4, 2009 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions

This is a very good buyrate. The line that this is a disappointment is crazy, the UFC is thrilled internally about it. You compare it year over year to the March buyrate of 08 for Anderson v. Dan and you can see why.

They expected this to do as low as a north american show can do. Virtually no promotion, no title match, no co-main event. Comparing it to Liddell-Jardine is completely misleading, Liddell coming off the biggest media push in the history of the sport in his rebound match.

by Michael Rome on Apr 4, 2009 5:50 PM EDT reply actions

Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson.

"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR

by Rundownloser on Apr 4, 2009 6:04 PM EDT up reply actions

I hope the UFC can hit 3 million total buys this year.

by Derek Suboticki on Apr 4, 2009 7:38 PM EDT reply actions

They are already over 1.5. (using those charts, 320k+1 million+350k=1.67 million) and we aren’t even halfway through the year. 97 probably won’t be getting too many buys, and neither will 99. 98 should be solid, and 100 will probably hit over 1 million. And that only puts us to July, getting about 3 million in half the year.

by Swordslasher on Apr 4, 2009 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions