Midnight Mania! Tito Says 200K Buys For Liddell Fight ‘Super Low’

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Tito Ortiz thinks that his trilogy bout with Chuck Liddell this Saturday should garner at least 200,000 Pay-Per-View (PPV) buys- and that’s being conservative.

To be a real success… a low number, 200? I mean, that’s shootin’ super low. If me and Chuck do 200,000 PPV buys, we shouldn’t even be in the business. I think this thing knocks it out of the park, I think we have a home run ahead of us, and I think all the fans at home will be interested in this fight because they want to see how this thing turns out.

As the reporter, Aaron Bronsteter, pointed out, no non-UFC Pay-Per-Views have broken that mark in MMA for some years, an objection Tito responded to with ‘glass half full’ optimism. There are some factors weighing in favor of Tito. Liddell and Ortiz do have considerable name value, and as Tito said, he has drawn big numbers on free TV for Bellator. There is no competition with the UFC Saturday night either- the UFC’s fight card, headlined by heavyweight contenders Curtis Blaydes and Francis Ngannou, is streamed online from China early Saturday morning. Golden Boy 1, the event headlined by Liddell-Ortiz, normally costs $39.99, but it will be half off on Black Friday for 2 hours, only $19.99. The big question is, after all this time, do fans still care about this rivalry? How powerful is nostalgia, exactly?

Liddell also gave his thoughts on the bout and said it will be a test whether the ‘boxing model’ of selling PPVs can work in mixed martial arts (MMA). The Ultimate Fighting Championship has had the PPV market in a death grip for some time in MMA, using a near-monopoly over the sports’ top talent and their name value to capture most of the revenue the sport generates.

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Insomnia

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I enjoy watching Curtis Blaydes fight, and I’ll definitely be tuning into his bout with Francis Ngannou this weekend. I think fans as a whole care far more about personality than fighting style, but very few are good at presenting themselves as larger-than-life figures in that way.

Joe Yoga’n.

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Slips, Rips, and Sumo Clips

This was a hard-fought match

I personally don’t enjoy the gi, but it does open up a lot of possibilities

There is something beautiful about watching someone get intense leverage on a choke.

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Random Land

This is stunning

While we are on skating…

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