UFC's pay-per-view business, which the company is built on, continues to sink.  The early estimates for UFC 139 are in, and it marks the third-straight PPV that didn't crack the 300,000 sales mark.  UFC 139 reportedly only did around 270,000 buys, despite having big names on it like Dan Henderson, Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva, Cung Le and Urijah Faber. no comments

UFC 136, both on paper and in the cage, was one of the best events the UFC have put on this year.  Two title fights.  A couple of other top contender matches.  Should have been easy money for the UFC in terms of pay-per-view buys, right?  Wrong.  Early estimates are that the event only sold 225,000 - 250,000 PPVs, which are just horrible numbers for an event headlined by a title match (not to mention TWO title fights). no comments

By all accounts UFC Rio: Silva vs Okami (aka UFC 134) was a smashing success: the event sold out immediately and the crowd at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were called by many as the best UFC crowd ever; the fighters on the card put on a great show, with plenty of exciting knock outs; and, most importantly to the people in the stands, the Brazliians on the card were overwhelmingly successful - 10 out of 11 matches involving a Brazilian saw a Brazilian come out on top. 

But unfortunately we have to rain on the UFC's parade - surprisingly the event bombed at the box office.  The early estimates are in for UFC Rio's pay-per-view buyrate and they aren't good - the event sold in the 250,000-300,000 range.  Considering we predicted the event to do in the 500,000 buyrate range (and we weren't alone in that prediction), the actual results have to be considered disastrous.

no comments

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 $4 to $2 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 it's valuation at $1.2 billion).

But how is the UFC doing so far in 2011 compared to last year?  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

Saturday's UFC 132 will be a historic moment for the company.  For the first time in the UFC's history, two men weighing under 155 pounds will headline a UFC event.  But will this be enough to entice fans to cough up $49.99 to purchase the pay-per-view?

The two "little people" headlining the card are of course UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz and the only man to ever beat the Dominator, Urijah Faber.  Faber is the most famous and popular lighter weight fighter of all-time, which must give the UFC hope that he can sell a few PPVs for them.  Add in the fact that, as mentioned, Faber is the only man to ever beat Cruz, plus the fact that there is genuine bad blood between the two fighters, and you've got yourself a solid main event to a card.  And that's not even mentioning the exciting show the two fighters are bound to put on in the Octagon, with the champ utilizing his highly effective and unique "stick and move" striking style, and Faber showing a well-rounded game and perhaps the biggest heart in the sport. 

no comments

UFC 131 was supposed to be easy money for the UFC - plug Brock Lesnar into the main event and guarantee yourself over 1,000,000 in pay-per-view buys.  But, as the UFC's luck of late would have it, Lesnar had another flare up of his diverticulitis and is shelved once again.  Enter Shane Carwin, who is a formidable opponent for Junior dos Santos, but not a formidable box office draw (except when he fights Brock Lesnar).  To compound matters, dos Santos isn't a proven commodity at the box office either.  However, they are heavyweights who like to bang, so that will draw a few people to the party.
no comments

 

Hi boys and girls - back again with your favourite game - guess the pay-per-view buyrate total for an upcoming UFC PPV!  And, as always, I'm your friendly host for the game.  Next up is yet another injury-depleted UFC PPV, this Saturday's UFC 130, headlined by Rampage Jackson vs Matt Hamill. no comments

 

 

The Fertitta brothers, Dana White and Flash Entertainment are about to get much, much richer.  That's because the owners of Zuffa will be rolling out a huge cash cow this Saturday night, UFC 129.  Zuffa has already taken in roughly $11 million from the 55,000 tickets sold to the event at Toronto's Rogers Centre.  Now it's time to predict how much they are going to rake in from pay-per-view sales for Saturday's extravaganza.
no comments

The early pay-per-view buyrate estimates for UFC 128 are in, and the results are surprisingly medicore.  Reportedly  the event sold in the 415,000 - 470,000 range, far underperforming our prediction of 600,000 buys.  This is surprising due to the fact that Jon 'Bones' Jones, who has "superstar" written all over him, headlined the event.  Yet, despite Jones' presence, along with fan favourite Urijah Faber and legend Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua, this event didn't sell as well as expected.

In fact, this is the worst selling UFC Light Heavyweight Championship bout in over five years - UFC 57: Liddell vs Couture III only sold 400,000 PPVs on February 4, 2006.  So does this mean that Jones isn't the draw that we all expected him to be?  It can't be due to lack of hype - this event was advertised and pushed quite heavily.  Yet it even sold less than both of Shogun's title fights versus Lyoto Machida, despite those events having arguably weaker undercards than UFC 128.  So is Machida a bigger draw than Jones?  That would seem unfathomable, as non-English speaking fighters tend to sell worse than there English speaking counterparts.  Not to mention that Jones is one of the most exciting fighters in the game, is personable and has been hyped to the moon.  However, all this will probably be a moot point after Jones has his first title defense versus Rashad Evans, which should be a big seller.  Evans almost always delivers the company plenty of buys, and the bad blood building between the former teammates should bring plenty of drama and hype to the event.  And, besides, it's not like we have to feel sorry for Zuffa - they didn't exactly lose money on UFC 128 - considering they get around 50% of the PPV revenues from the satellite and cable providers, Saturday night should send somewhere in the ballpark of $11,000,000 to their coffers. 

no comments

After doing so well on our first UFC pay-per-view buyrate prediction (we predicted UFC 127 would sell in the 250,000-300,000 range and early indicators are that it did), we're back for another kick at the can.  This time the task at hand appears to be much more difficult - UFC 128.  While UFC 127 was an obviously weak card that wouldn't sell well, UFC 128 is another kettle of fish (yes, I just used two tired cliches in one paragraph - respect my steez!).  no comments