UFC not enjoying a good year for PPV buys
The decline of the UFC has been declared non-stop since it’s inception, and it has always risen in time. Thus there is every expectation it will do so here. What’s not clear is how.
In 2016, the UFC did five events that did over 1,000,000 PPV buys. That same year the league sold to WME-IMG for over $4 billion, the largest sale in sports history. We are now into the 10th month of 2017, and not one PPV has sold over 1,000,000 buys.
In further bad news, Dave Meltzer estimates that UFC 215, headlined by women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko, did just 100,000 buys, the worst rate in 15 years. That’s the same as Affliction 1: Banned. And UFC 216, headlined by Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee for the interim lightweight championship didn’t do much better.
“As far as PPV goes, prelim indications aren’t that strong,” said Meltzer, in his Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription and worth it). “Very early indicators look up about 20 percent from last month, but that was a rock bottom 100,000 buy show.”
And it doesn’t stop. UFC 213, headlined by Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker for the interim middleweight championship did just 150,000 buys. The last event to break 1,000,000 buys was UFC 207 Nunes vs. Rousey on December 30, 2016. And then Rousey retired. The biggest show in 2017 was UFC 214: Cormier vs. Jones 2 on July 29, 2017; and then Jones failed a PED test and could be out for years. Brock Lesnar is a major PPV draw, but is so disinterested in a return that his suspension is tolling until he re-enters the USADA testing pool for six months. UFC lightweight Conor McGregor made $100 million boxing Floyd Mayweather, and has no date for a return to the Octagon, although one is expected.
The sole good news on the immediate horizon is the return of welterweight G.O.A.T. Georges St-Pierre, who fights middleweight champion Michael Bisping at UFC 217 on November 4, 2017, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. Still, this is the year to date, with Meltzer’s estimates, which are just that, estimates. They have been contested at various points by UFC brass. Still, it’s not a pretty picture:
UFC 208: Holm vs. de Randamie – 200,000
UFC 208: Holm vs. de Randamie – 200,000
UFC 209: Woodley vs. Thompson II – 300,000
UFC 210: Cormier vs. Johnson II – 300,000
UFC 211: Miocic vs. dos Santos II – 300,000
UFC 212: Aldo vs. Holloway – 200,000
UFC 213: Romero vs. Whittaker – 150,000
UFC 214: Cormier vs. Jones II – 860,000
UFC 215: Nunes vs. Shevchenko II – 100,000
UFC 216: Ferguson vs. Lee – 120,000
The decline of the UFC has been declared non-stop since it’s inception, and it has always risen in time. Thus there is every expectation it will do so here. What’s not clear is how.