If the most recent rumors are true about a potential UFC 168 rematch between new middleweight champion Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva, it could very well be the biggest card in promotion history.
According to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times, Dana White not only believes that a rematch between the two will happen, but he wants to schedule it for UFC 168 on Dec. 28, 2013:
Puigmire later reported that White has cooled on the idea of moving Ronda Rousey and Miesha off of its scheduled Dec. 28 date, leaving Silva and Weidman’s title fight without a date.
However, moving the Women’s bantamweight title championship match to co-main event status with the Weidman vs. Silva 2 is a move that White should consider for the year-end pay-per-view—a two championship card would give the event even more buzz.
Doing an interview for UFC Tonight on Fuel TV, White claimed that the rematch would be the biggest fight in UFC history.
He’s not wrong.
Finding legitimate pay-per-view numbers for the company is a difficult task. The company doesn’t have to release the information and the reported numbers, however MMA Payout Blue Book reports that the most successful card in the history of the organization was UFC 100.
The historic card featured a grudge match between Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar as the main event.
While Lesnar is still one of the UFC’s top pay-per-view draws in the history of the organization, White said in 2012 that Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Chael Sonnen, Jon Jones and Rashad Evans are among the biggest draws in the organization, per MMA Weekly.
Looking at that list, none of those names are actually surprising. However, it’s worth noting that Silva essentially created two of those five pay-per-view all-stars.
He became a huge draw himself by defending his title 10 consecutive times and consistently provided highlight knockouts. He also provided the perfect target for Sonnen to launch his run as a pay-per-view champion.
Sonnen‘s ability to trash talk and put The Spider in trouble set up one of the most successful cards recently, UFC 148.
After Sonnen won four rounds against Silva before getting submitted in Round 5 at UFC 117, the 2012 Fourth of July weekend card racked up an impressive reported 925,000 buys, per MMA Payout Blue Book’s report.
While some of those impressive numbers can be chalked up to Sonnen‘s mastery at hyping fights, it was Sonnen‘s ability to put Silva in danger that drove up the buy rate.
If Sonnen became an immediate draw simply by putting Silva in serious danger, it stands to reason that Weidman should see a huge boost in popularity going forward after actually beating the champion. And the intrigue around a rematch would be intense.
In Silva vs. Weidman 2, Dana White has a serious cash cow in the making. The only thing that could keep it from approaching the numbers that some of the best cards in history have accomplished is the surrounding card.
UFC 100 featured a Georges St-Pierre title defense against Thiago Alves as the co-main event. It will be up to White to make sure that the card supporting the main event is also worthy of setting records, but the potential is there for the best card in the organization’s history.
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