- GDPofDRC wrote:
- 810,000 PPV buys
Early pay-per-view numbers indicate UFC 158 will top 800,000 buysSaturday's
UFC 158 may wind up being the biggest pay-per-view event UFC's top draw,
Georges St-Pierre, has done on his own with preliminary indications that
the show will top 800,000 buys.
The show was expected to be the company's most successful show since July's
UFC 148 with
Anderson Silva's return match with
Chael Sonnen. St-Pierre had done numbers in the 750,000 to 800,000 range in previous fights with
B.J. Penn,
Dan Hardy,
Josh Koscheck and
Jake Shields, but this show is expected to finish slightly ahead of those fights.
St-Pierre vs.
Thiago Alves was the co-headliner at UFC 100 in 2009, which was by far the most
successful event in company history, doing an estimated 1.6 million
buys. However, that number was drawn on the combination of the number of
the event, St-Pierre, and a heavyweight title grudge match with
Brock Lesnar vs.
Frank Mir.
The difference maker is that the public found
Nick Diaz to be St-Pierre's most intriguing opponent to date, Diaz was coming off a loss to
Carlos Condit and a one-year suspension for a second marijuana test failure in
Nevada. But in playing up the grudge match aspect, public interest in
the match up was strong all week with near-record numbers watching the
press conference and the weigh-ins.
Diaz's unpredictability made him a uniquely compelling opponent for
St-Pierre. Historically, personal issues, whether real of contrived,
involving the biggest stars are going to draw the biggest numbers. In
this case, it was a match the public had been primed for since 2011.
The fight had fallen through twice, once when Diaz was pulled over
missing two press conferences, and a second time when St-Pierre went
down with a torn ACL. Diaz had spent years as a headliner for rival
promotions, Elite XC and then
Strikeforce, and headlined a number of nationally televised events and captured the Strikeforce welterweight title.
As it turned out, his no-showing the Wednesday public workout in its
own way focused more attention on the fight, as did his rambling
monologues at the press conference that appeared to get under
St-Pierre's skin. The feeling this would be a different St-Pierre also
helped sell the event, even though as soon as the fight started, it was
clear St-Pierre was fighting his usual best strategic fight to win as
opposed to fighting with emotion leading to a wilder battle.
When UFC acquired Strikeforce in early 2011, with Diaz as
welterweight champion riding an 11-fight win streak, a bout with
St-Pierre seemed an obvious major event. The loss, hiatus and delay in
making the fight didn't seem to cool off interest with the public, which
peaked in the final few days after Diaz took over the press conference
and stated he believed St-Pierre was using steroids. An incident at a
Las Vegas hotel in 2011 between the two was played up, and the normally
calm St-Pierre appeared to lose his cool on several occasions.
Even Diaz's assertions that the UFC and St-Pierre were selling "wolf
tickets," and warned the public not to fall for the hype, created more
talk, while UFC President Dana White defended the legitimacy of the
buildup.
The success of the show is even more impressive since it was achieved
without a three-week Primetime series as Penn, Hardy, and Shields had
to build up their title challenges. The Ultimate Fighter season with
Koscheck and GSP had weekly tension between the coaches.
Diaz presented a unique dichotomy, in the sense his ability to
promote a fight naturally ranks with the best, but his showing up to do
so ranked with the worst. His fight style, with the high punch output
usually makes for an entertaining fight, it's the idea that you have no
idea what he will do next at any time that is his real calling card.
But that has its flip side of promoting fights, with his no-shows of
press conferences and a number of interview sessions, leaving the
company with minimal usable footage for television hype specials.
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