When UFC 99 was aired on PPV three years ago, it wound up being the second-least purchased UFC PPV of the year. That fight card featured a still somewhat-in-their-prime Wanderlei Silva and Rich Franklin in the main event, rising stars Cheick Kongo and future heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in the co- main event, as well as Dan Hardy and Mirko Cro Cop on the broadcast. All of that drew 360,000 PPV buys.
On June 23rd, the PPV card of UFC 147 will feature the rematch of a now somewhat-past-their-prime Franklin and Silva, and a respectable at best co-main event between heavyweight contenders Fabricio Werdum and Mike Russow. That is where the PPV worthy matches end.
The next fight on the main card is a featherweight bout between Brazilians Yuri Alcantara and Hacran Dias. Alcantara is 2-0 in the UFC, with decision victories over Michihiro Omigawa and Felipe Arantes the last two times the octagon made its way to Brazil at UFC 142 and UFC 134. Dias is making his UFC debut after a 20-1-1 start to his MMA career, his last five wins coming in the Shooto organization.
The next two fights are the finals of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” in the featherweight and middleweight divisions. The featherweight final will pit two (shocker) Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts against one another as Godofredo Pepey will take on Rony “Jason” Mariano. Pepey comes into the fight 8-0, Mariano at 10-3.
The middleweight finals will pit 7-2 Daniel Sarafian against the winner of the semi-final fight between Thiago Bodao and Cezar Mutante. This is the first time in the 16 seasons of “The Ultimate Fighter” that the final will air on PPV.
This Brazilian fighter-heavy card is reminiscent of past events UFC 75, UFC 95, and UFC 105, all of which took place in England where the fight cards were filled up with English fighters to appeal to the majority of those in attendance. All three of those cards aired for free on Spike TV, and all of them had better main cards top-to-bottom than UFC 147.
The main card of UFC 147 has an appealing main event and co-main Event, at best. If the UFC thinks they will rake in big PPV numbers on June 23rd, they should think again.
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