UFC 152 Sells An Estimated 450K Buys

[No More Sorrow]

Preliminary reports have UFC 152 featuring Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort selling an estimated 450-460,000 pay-per-view buys.

The early numbers are in for UFC 152: Jones vs. Belfort which featured Jon Jones' return to action after the cancellation of UFC 151 and they're not terrible but not spectacular either. Dave Meltzer is reporting at the Wrestling Observer (subscription required) that the show sold slightly more than half the buys Jones got in his last outing against Rashad Evans at UFC 145 (700,000):


Quote:
Preliminary numbers from UFC 152 are 450,000 to 460,000 buys. Keep in mind these are still early numbers and can vary greatly. It's at the low end of expectations. I think the key here is that the six weeks between shows really didn't make a difference. It's considerably down from Jon Jones' last fight. Obviously Vitor Belfort wasn't going to draw as his opponent like Rashad Evans because you had no grudge match and betrayal storyline. But this looks to be less than Lyoto Machida. I really don't think all the publicity was going to keep people from buying, but one thing is pretty much for sure. All that publicity didn't either make him a bigger marquee star, nor did it create a situation where he sold more because people would buy to see him beat up. The only people buying to see him beat up were the same people buying to start with.

These numbers are a bit lower than I expected. Especially considering that UFC 151 was cancelled and the UFC 152 card was bolstered by the addition of Jones vs Belfort.

Do you guys think Jones vs Sonnen or Jones vs. Hendo would have drawn better?

 

[MaNonTheMoon]

Jones vs Sonnen would have sold better, no questions asked. But that's mainly due to Sonnen being a one man Hype Machine though

 

[Slim]

Jones/Henderson would have sold good too. Main problem is that they couldn't hype it and build it up as much as the Henderson/Jones fight because there wasn't much time to do it. If they had more time to promote it... I'm sure it would have sold a lot more.

 

[The Cork]

It's a decent number IMO.

Belfort wasn't a good opponent, he was expected to be a punchbag by most people so that had to play it's part. Plus with all the free cards UFC put out nowdays, a lot of guys are probably like "why fucking pay when I get a free show next week".

It's not the same situation as when Lesnar was getting a million and half buys, yeah Sonnen/Silva and Bones/Evans drew but other than the once a year superfights, the sport is in a lull. Just look at how the lightweights and below draw, like 100k region for Bendo fights.

I'd guess the big December card will do the same as this, Sonnen on the bill, heavyweight title fight headliner but the solid free Fox card a couple of weeks earlier.

 

[Slim]

That Fox card is more than good enough to be a PPV show and would more than likely outsell this PPV.

 

[Troy]

It is a decent number considering all the drama surrounding the event. Jones getting an opponent that wasn't going to be as much of a threat to him as Henderson and the fact that there was no story or rivalry behind the fight would have hurt the numbers. Jones Henderson would have sold better than this, probably 600k because he was a threat and fans wanted to see how a forty something fighter would do against Jones.

Sonnen vs. Jones would have sold more with one weeks build because Sonnen would have sold the crap out of the fight and got everyone interested.

 

[Deezy]

Decent number, but UFC is overstepping themselves and bringing out too many cards, I myself "who is a MMA fanatic" have found myself being burned out because of the number of cards being thrown out there.

UFC should learn a thing from WWE, too much content waters down the product.

 

[Troy]

Amen to that but I don't see them cutting down. They have to put out X amount of shows each year due to that huge contract they signed with Fox. It would be better if they stepped back a bit and didn't try to produce 30 shows a year which ends up diluting the cards as there aren't enough big fights to fill each show.

If they do get rid of Strikeforce and bring the roster across then they need to have a good look at the 350+ guys signed to them and figure out how many they actually need.