The MMA universe is in a tizzy over Saturday night’s UFC 182 light heavyweight title fight between champion Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, and UFC President Dana White is expecting that to translate into some huge numbers. Speaking at the UFC 182 media day, White estimated that the card would garner around around 750,000 buys.
“I think this fight will do 750[,000 buys], that’s where I place the line,” White said to the assembled media. “Everyone thinks the pay-per-view thing is dead. Pay-per-view isn’t dead. We just had a bad year.”
White is referencing the UFC’s brutally tough 2014. According to MMAPayout.com and Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via CagePotato.com), the promotion averaged under 250,000 buys per event, with only one event (UFC 175) climbing over the 500,000-buy mark and five (UFC 174, 177, 178, 179, 180) scattered between 115,000 and 205,000.
For the sake of comparison, pay-per-view events in 2013 averaged over 400,000 buys. That is a particularly sharp drop, even considering the company’s established downward trend.
Some speculated that this was a sign that the pay-per-view model for combat sports is no longer sustainable for the UFC.
Regardless of White’s dismissal, there is some logic and precedent in that belief, as World Wrestling Entertainment—the foremost professional wrestling organization—has been attempting to leave conventional pay-per-views behind in favor of its own media platform, the WWE Network. The UFC, around the same time, rolled out its own digital streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
That said, it is hard to deny that the slide was not, at the very least, exaggerated by the collapse of numerous blue-chip fights. Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort was booked, cancelled, re-booked and then delayed to UFC 184. Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum was scrapped after Velasquez suffered an injury. Even UFC 182’s main event was initially planned to go down at UFC 178.
Either way, UFC 182’s buyrates will come out in the weeks following the event. Stick with Bleacher Report for coverage of both the event itself and its aftermath.
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