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UFC 152 sells an estimated 450,000 buys

Link: UFC 152 sells an estimated 450,000 buys - Bloody Elbow

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Preliminary reports have UFC 152 featuring Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort selling an estimated 450-460,000 pay-per-view buys.

The early numbers are in for UFC 152: Jones vs. Belfort which featured Jon Jones' return to action after the cancellation of UFC 151 and they're not terrible but not spectacular either. Dave Meltzer is reporting at the Wrestling Observer (subscription required) that the show sold slightly more than half the buys Jones got in his last outing against Rashad Evans at UFC 145 (700,000):

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Preliminary numbers from UFC 152 are 450,000 to 460,000 buys. Keep in mind these are still early numbers and can vary greatly. It's at the low end of expectations. I think the key here is that the six weeks between shows really didn't make a difference. It's considerably down from Jon Jones' last fight. Obviously Vitor Belfort wasn't going to draw as his opponent like Rashad Evans because you had no grudge match and betrayal storyline. But this looks to be less than Lyoto Machida. I really don't think all the publicity was going to keep people from buying, but one thing is pretty much for sure. All that publicity didn't either make him a bigger marquee star, nor did it create a situation where he sold more because people would buy to see him beat up. The only people buying to see him beat up were the same people buying to start with.

We'll have more commentary on what these numbers mean tomorrow but for comparison here are some recent UFC PPV numbers:

UFC 150: Henderson vs. Edgar 2 - 190,000
UFC 149: Faber vs. Barao - 235,000
UFC 148: Silva vs Sonnen 2 - 1,000,000
UFC 147: Franklin vs. Silva 2 - 140,000
UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir - 560,000
UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans - 700,000
UFC 144: Henderson vs. Edgar 1 - 375,000

These numbers are a bit lower than I expected. Especially considering that UFC 151 was cancelled and the UFC 152 card was bolstered by the addition of Jones vs Belfort.

At least there were more people watching UFC 152 than an average episode of TUF 16.

Do people think Jones vs Sonnen would have drawn better?

I DO think Sonnen/Jones would have drawn at least another 100-150k more people.

I think if 151 had gone down, Jones and Hendo would have done better even with the weak card.

Bones-Sonnen would've drawn significantly better. This isn't exactly a referendum on Bones' drawing power though. Like Anderson he needs the right opponent to capture public interest. Anderson may have drawn over 1M buys against Sonnen, but his previous fight against Okami did under 350K.

Bones drew 490k with Shogun, 520k with Rampage, 480k with Machida, & 700k with Rashad. Considering Belfort was a late replacement 450K isn't that bad.

Bones is not the draw that most think he is. Sonnen could get more buys if he were fighting against actual bones from a skeleton. I'm joking, but it's probably true.

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Originally Posted by The Donosaur (Post 972256)

Bones is not the draw that most think he is. Sonnen could get more buys if he were fighting against actual bones from a skeleton. I'm joking, but it's probably true.

Yeah sadly it is true more people will but a card because of hype then actual substance.

450k is a pretty decent number for UFC 152. It would not have sold well if not for Jones being added to the card. Likely would have been in the 200k range at best.

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Originally Posted by Rise (Post 972271)

Before Jones it was the 125lb championship as the main event.....look at the Bendo vs Edgar 2 card numbers. If that card only managed to sell 190k, then 152 would have been lucky to sell 100k

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Originally Posted by CtGreat (Post 972272)

Before Jones it was the 125lb championship as the main event.....look at the Bendo vs Edgar 2 card numbers. If that card only managed to sell 190k, then 152 would have been lucky to sell 100k

Yeah that's why I was saying 200k at best. The Barao/Faber card did 235k an this card was si8milar to it in depth prior.

Really prefer to see the UFC cutback on the number of PPV's a year stack the cards up a bit more. They'll still end up making the same money in the long run as far as PPV's go. They pull in almost double or better the numbers on any halfways decent show they put out. They'd lose a little arena revenue maybe in the short term but that could be made up by only hitting major venues and cut back on the smaller arena shows for FX/Fuel shows.

that could have easily doubled the numbers 151 and 152 drew... combined... had Jones/Vitor Happened, and 151 went on without Jones...

Lets hope they can make Jones vs. Hendo happen soon.

Belfort was a late replacement and a smaller opponent that hadn't earned his shot. Tough sell.450k isn't really that bad. The card would have set records without Jones.