UFC the undisputed PPV Champion of the world
Top 10 PPV buy rates, 2009 1. UFC 100: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, July 11, 1.6 million 2. Boxing:…
Top 10 PPV buy rates, 2009
1. UFC 100: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, July 11, 1.6 million
2. Boxing: Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto, Nov. 14, 1.25 million
3. Boxing: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, Sept. 19, 1.05 millon
4. UFC 94: Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn, Jan. 31, 920,000 buys
5. UFC 101: Penn vs. Kenny Florian/Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin, Aug. 8, 850,000
6. Boxing: Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton, May 2, 825,000
7t. UFC 107: Penn vs. Diego Sanchez, Dec. 12, 650,000
7t. UFC 97: Silva vs. Thales Leites/Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua, April 18, 650,000
9. UFC 99: Lyoto Machida vs. Rashad Evans/Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra, May 23, 635,000
10. Wrestling: WWE WrestleMania 25, April 5, 582,000 buys
After setting pay-per-view industry records in 2009, the Ultimate Fighting Championship faces opposition from boxing and wrestling over the next several months as it attempts to maintain last year’s levels.
It’s estimated that UFC, which didn’t publicly release figures, did nearly 8 million buys in the United States and Canada on 13 pay-per-view events this past year. That includes six of the year’s top 10 buyrates and 11 of the top 15.
Even though UFC has outpaced boxing over the course of the year for the past several years, boxing still has the capability with the right fight to do bigger numbers than even the best UFC event.
WWE, which as a pay-per-view company is more international in scope than the others, held 14 events over the past year, doing an estimated 4,600,000 worldwide buys and of that, roughly 2,850,000 buys were from North America. The company has had a steady decline in pay–per-view numbers, particularly in North America, since the emergence of UFC as a television entity in 2005.
While all mixed martial arts, boxing and pro wrestling are obviously three different products, there is enough of a crossover audience to makes them competitors.
