The early estimates for UFC 142's pay-per-view sales are in, and they are actually better than expected. It is being reported that the event, which was headlined by featherweight champ Jose Aldo successfully defending his belt versus Chad Mendes, sold 225,000 PPVs. While this is a better number than predicted, it is still historically low - UFC 136 sold around the same amount last year - to find an event that sold lower than that you have to go back all the way back to 2008 when UFC 85 sold 215,000 pay-per-views.
On a positive note, UFC 142 was also broadcast on free TV in Brazil, and a whopping 23 million Brazilians happily cheered on Aldo, Vitor Belfort and the rest of their "hometown" heroes on to victory. This number is all the more impressive when you consider that the main card of the event didn't start until 1:00am in Rio.
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The TV ratings for the UFC's debut on the FX network are in, and they are so-so. Friday's UFC on FX 1, headlined by Jim Miller choking out Melvin Guillard, drew an average of 1.3 million viewers. To put that into perspective, last year's three UFC Fight Nights on Spike TV averaged 1.9 million viewers (Spike and FX are both available in about the same number of homes). no comments
So do you want to know who is going win this Saturday's Rashad Evans-Phil Davis clash? UFC Undisputed 3 has got your answer right here:
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Jim Miller claims to be the most dangerous lightweight fighter in the world, and last night he looked the part. He also took home a check fitting for one of the best
155ers in the world - his $115,000 payday was the tops at UFC on FX 1.
Before we go any further, we should note that the Tennessee Athletic Commission doesn't release fighter pay info, so none of the following salary data for the event is official. However, you can get a fairly accurate picture of a fighter's pay based on official purse info released from past fights. So, based on that info, here is the estimated pay breakdown for the 20 fighters that traded blows at the event (but please remember - this is only an estimate, not official info, especially for any fighters that made their UFC debuts at the event). These numbers obviously also don't include any PPV revenue, undisclosed bonuses and/or sponsorship money any of these fighters may have made.
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Congratulations to Tom Tredway for winning our UFC on FX 1 Pick 'Em Contest. Next Pick 'Em action will be for UFC on Fox 2 on Jan 28th. Thanks for playing!
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It was good to be the hometown hero at UFC 142 - both inside the cage and out. Not only did Brazilian fighters dominate their opponents in the Octagon at last night's event, they also took away the most money. Vitor Belfort leads the way, with his earnings moving him into the top 20 on our UFC Career Fighter Earnings list.
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Congratulations to Angel Alfaro for winning our UFC 142 Pick 'Em Contest (via tie-breaker). Next Pick 'Em action will be for this Friday's UFC on FX. Thanks for playing!
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The UFC has a license to print money. The company's (Zuffa) rise from the ashes is legendary - five years ago, when attempting to sell the money-losing UFC, they could only get offers in the $2 to $4 million range. Now the company is valued at over a billion dollars (Flash Entertainment paid $120 million for 10% of the company in 2010, which would make its valuation at $1.2 billion).
But everything is not rosy in Zuffaland, as the UFC had a down year in 2011 (in comparison to 2010). While Zuffa isn't a public company and therefore don't have to disclose their financial records, several of the company's key financial info is out there in the public for us to analyze. These would be the UFC's pay-per-view buyrates, its live gate and its fighter salaries. And taking a look at those stats, Dana White and the Fertitta boys probably wish it was 2010 again. no comments
