Saturday’s UFC 193 event was expected to perhaps be the biggest pay-per-view draw of the year, and it may have been even bigger than those lofty expectations.
According to UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta, via a report from Kevin Iole with Yahoo! Sports, the Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm headlined event surpassed one million pay-per-view buys, and is trending to possibly bring the second highest pay-per-view buyrate in company history.
Per Fertitta, it’s currently sitting in third, which would put it around or just under 1.1 million buys currently. The highest drawing broadcast to date, UFC 100, drew an estimated 1.6 million buys in 2009, well above any other event to date. However, several have surpassed one million buys, though none since Dec. 2013’s UFC 168 event.
Penick’s Analysis: This is impressive, if not unsurprising news. That there’s confirmation from Fertitta himself that it’s over a million buys gives further credence to the numbers above what we might normally see from outside estimates, and it’s a testament to Rousey’s star power that they got there. The rematch, presumably to come at UFC 200 in July of next year, could be even more massive, with everyone wanting to see how Rousey responds to what happened on Saturday night.
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