Last night’s UFC on FOX event might be the most important night in the history of the Zuffa-owned promotion. The return to network television will help enlighten an entirely new group of fans who may have previously viewed mixed martial arts as “barbaric.”
The main event between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos exposed many of these fans to the current heavyweight title scene, with these two fighters being the top of the class at the current moment. Even though the fight only lasted one minute, it’s hard to deny that the No. 1 heavyweight in the world—Junior dos Santos—got all the exposure that a champion should.
Unfortunately for him and the UFC, the truth is that although he and Velasquez got way more coverage going into their fights, neither of them is close to being in the top two biggest draws in the history of the heavyweight division in MMA.
That title goes to former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar—and Kimbo Slice.
Don’t confuse what I’m trying to say here—by no means am I saying that Slice or even Lesnar are better than dos Santos—they’re simply bigger stars… and the numbers prove it.
Brock Lesnar has never fought on free TV for the UFC, so it’s hard to really compare his numbers directly to what Velasquez and dos Santos did last night, but his pay-per-view numbers completely shatter anything that Velasquez or dos Santos have done.
The UFC has seven pay-per-views in its history that have gone over 1 million buys. Four of them have involved Brock Lesnar in the main event. Meanwhile, Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez have only combined to be in one main event of a PPV that has gone over one million buys—and it happened when Velasquez fought Lesnar.
Until Velasquez or dos Santos is able to headline an event and bring in a huge crowd, it’s hard to believe that either of them is a bigger star than Lesnar is right now… It’s even harder to believe that they are as popular as Lesnar was in the height of his popularity.
As for Kimbo Slice, the former backyard brawler has been involved in some of the most-watched MMA events in the history of the sport. He may not be very skilled, he may not have ever been a champion, but he was the definition of a superstar in the sport of mixed martial arts.
Slice headlined a fight card for EliteXC in May 2008 against James Thompson, on the CBS network. At 4.85 million viewers, the fight card was watched by nearly twice as many viewers as the following EliteXC on CBS event that did not feature Kimbo. In fact, that number was slightly better than original estimates which suggested that UFC on FOX had only 4.64 million viewers (this number was later corrected to 5.7 million viewers).
… and that was without the UFC promoting the event!
Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez are rightfully ranked above both Lesnar and Slice, but although they have the UFC fully invested in them, so it may very well happen at some point, they have a long way to go before they can compete with either Lesnar or Slice in terms of being stars.
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