On the strength of two Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz money fights, as well as Brock Lesnar’s controversial comeback at UFC 200, Dana White and the new WME-IMG ownership group are within striking distance of the company’s best-selling pay-per-view year to date.
But first, at least two big dominoes have to fall the right way. Before we get into those hypotheticals, let’s crunch the pay-per-view numbers we already know, as reported by UFC PPV guru Dave Meltzer (via MMA Payout).
The UFC’s #1 pay-per-view year, 2010, totaled approximately 8.8 million buys on the strength of 16 PPVs. The blockbusters were courtesy of Brock Lesnar, whose UFC 116 and 121 headliners totaled just under 2 million buys, as well as Georges St-Pierre, whose UFC 111 and 124 showcases surpassed 1.5 million. Rashad Evans vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 114 also came in strong at an even 1 million.
2016 has seen nine UFC pay-per-views thus far with four still to go. UFC 195 through UFC 202 accounted for at least 6 million buys, and early estimates for UFC 203 have the event doing at least 400,000 (with the possibility of a much higher total). For our purposes, we’ll take a conservative approach with these cards, as well as UFC 204: Michael Bisping vs. Dan Henderson 2, which should do 300,000 at minimum (Bisping’s UFC 199 rematch with Luke Rockhold did 320,000, for comparison).
All together, this lowball estimate comes out to 6.7 million buys.
Which brings us back to our dominoes. The first one is McGregor, who with a quick turnaround at UFC 205 would have the November card at Madison Square Garden easily clear 1.5 million buys. Don’t forget that UFC 202 broke the all-time PPV record with a reported 1.65 million buys, and did not benefit from a stacked card like the one 205 already boasts.
