There are a lot of different ways you can look at the UFC 159 pay-per-view buyrate, which numbers guru Dave Meltzer this week pegged between 520,000 and 550,000.
One way to look at the numbers is optimistically. If you were to look at the numbers in the most positive fashion possible,
then you would say that UFC 159 was a grand slam for Zuffa because it’s second only to UFC 158 – headlined by UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz, two of the sport’s biggest draws – in the year 2013 as far as PPV buys go. UFC 158 did approximately 925,000 buys, ahead of UFC 156 (325,00) and UFC 157 (450,000).
Another way you could look at the numbers is pessimistically, and say that the UFC should have done better numbers for an event headlined by the much-anticipated grudge match between UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his rival Chael Sonnen. The two had this fight set up last September in the wake of the UFC 151 disaster, and they had over six months to brew their bad blood, as they traded barbs over social media and as coaches on season 17 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” but it seemed like the feud was dragged on much too long, and the fans became disinterested after a while.
Jones vs. Sonnen was a great fight last September when UFC 151 needed a last-minute main event, but after six months of hearing Sonnen say the same things to Jones and Jones not say anything back, many fans became bored, and that’s why the event didn’t even come close to the numbers Sonnen’s last fight against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva did (UFC 148 had over 900,000 buys). This isn’t even mentioning the fact that Sonnen didn’t deserve his title shot at all and only got the chance to fight for the 205-pound title with no 205-pound wins because he’s a big name and typically draws well.
The uncompetitive nature of the fight must have played some part in the buyrate not being higher than what it was, no doubt about it, because if you look at Jones’ headlining fights against Rashad Evans at UFC 145 (700,000), Lyoto Machida at UFC 140 (485,000), Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135 (525,000), and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128 (490,000), none of those fights except for the Evans bout had even close to the promotion that the Sonnen fight did, and yet did comparable numbers. (Not surprisingly, the Evans fight did the best of all of them, because that was a genuine feud and it was a competitive fight on paper.)
But the way I look at the numbers is a lot simpler, and it’s that the fans were interested in seeing Jones fight this April, but not necessarily against Sonnen. Jones is a legit star and I honestly think the UFC could have put anyone in the cage opposite Jones and the event would have done over 400,000 buys and probably closer to 500,000 and I can prove it.
Last September after the fallout of UFC 151, Jones ended up fighting middleweight -turned-light-heavyweight Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 152. Even though the fight was booked on very short notice and didn’t have any build-up, and even though Belfort had no recent 205-pound wins, the fans still bought the show to a tune of 450,000 buys. And why? Because they wanted to see Jones fight, as he is one of the top three mixed martial artists on the planet.
The UFC dedicated a whole season of TUF to Jones and Sonnen (somewhat out of necessity as Jones was injured during the bout with Belfort), but I don’t think the numbers for UFC 159 would have been that much different if the UFC didn’t put them on TUF, and promoted their fight in the traditional manner. In my opinion, the show didn’t build the Jones and Sonnen feud at all, and actually turned some fans off of the fight in a way, because they didn’t feel there was genuine heat between the two, and felt that it was manufactured for the cameras (which is pretty accurate, in my opinion).
Except for that week last August when UFC 151 was canceled and Jones refused to fight Sonnen, it didn’t seem like these two fighters had a dislike for each other. Sure, there was that one interview where Jones wouldn’t look at Sonnen, but other than that there really wasn’t much of a beef between the two fighters, and all the compliments Sonnen kept dishing out to Jones in the days and weeks leading up to the event were puzzling if they were trying to build this grudge match. The fans didn’t buy the grudge, and that’s why this event didn’t sell 700,000 buys like Jones vs. Evans did.
Jones is a star and the UFC can continue to march anyone they want from any division in the cage opposite him and they will be selling close to 500,000 pay-per-views guaranteed. But if they can find someone that the fans can buy as a legit challenger, and also someone who knows how to promote a fight, then the UFC will start seeing numbers closer to 700,000 PPV buys for his fights – and maybe even higher.
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UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen took place on April 27, 2013 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Click the stars to rate how good you think UFC 159 was.
Sonnen is fun to watch.
His buildups are probably better then his fights,