Dana White: UFC 92 Crushed UFC 91 Pay-Per-View Buys
UFC President Dana White
In a recent interview with ESPN.com UFC President Dana White revealed that UFC 92, which featured Rashad Evans vs. Forrest Griffin, Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva, “crushed” UFC 91, which was headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview where White discusses the performance of the UFC’s latest event:
What are the ramifications of a Georges St.-Pierre win against BJ Penn? And what if Penn wins?
I’m not worried about that; I’m worried about the fight itself. I think it’s going to be the biggest fight we’ve ever done. The last Lesnar pay-per-view did really well, and then our Dec. 27 show crushed it.
When you say it crushed it, are we talking a million buys for Griffin/Evans?
I don’t want to get into numbers too much—that’s our policy. But it crushed it. I’ll say this: The Christmas show crushed the Lesnar fight by 150,000-175,000 buys.
Were you surprised by that?
No, I wasn’t surprised; I was happy. I was f’ing thrilled. We lowballed our preflight estimates on that card and were blown away. I think what happened was two things. One, it was a kick-ass card. Two, I think we were a little off because of the holidays. I guess everybody thought, you’re burnt out by everything, what do you want to do? You want to get back together with your buddies and watch some fights. We were crapping our pants when the calendar came up when we saw the last Saturday of the year fell two days after Christmas. Then the economy went down. We didn’t know exactly what to expect. But we were surprised by how well it did.
UFC 91 reportedly did between 850,000 and 1 million buys which means UFC 92 almost assuredly broke the 1 million buy threshold and likely surpassed the 1.05 million buys generated by UFC 66, which boasted proven pay-per-view headliners Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, making UFC 92 the most-purchased event in the promotion’s history.
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Wow !
Now that is impressive but saying that Silva, Jackson & Forrest are big draws
I think we as fans can take this two ways… 1) that yes Silva v Jackson, Forrest v Evans were the “big draws” bonus match was Mir v Nog and soo that’s cool 2) that the Lesnar v Couture fight brought in a lot of “new fans” that just wanted to see Lesnar fight and ended up really liking what MMA showed them on that card and decided to but the end of the year card too… And to think that 92 crushed 91 couldn’t be far off I know of a lot of people that picked 92 to watch because it was the biggest fights avaliable
Agree with you on all points.
I agree with FR’s comments. I also feel that it’s good that espn is talking to Dana and actually cares about how MMA is doing. It’s also good to see that even with the economy the way it is, all the money spent at Christmas, and the clear availabilty of the fights online at places like justin.tv and what not the buys are still up. Then if you consider that I had 5 people over to watch the fight at my place and I guarantee there were other people that had more, it shows that the fanbase is really growing.
I wonder if this actually did crush UFC 66. That’s still one of the most anticipated fights that has taken place in the last few years.
I’m not surprised that this did better than UFC 91. “In my opinion” calling that the biggest fight in UFC history was a joke for publicity. I just threw in UFC 16 in the old VCR the other day, and apparently the Lightweight tournament and Frank Shamrock vs. Igor Zinoview was the biggest UFC ever, and this was back when SEG ran it. All overhyped.
Dude UFC 94 is going to beat both of those. Everyone is going to tune in to watch GSP kick the “prodigy’s” ass back to 155 where florian will dethrone him. Fitch is on the card,karo vs kim is going to be good as well, but who doesn’t want to watch my boy thiago silva GnP on machida?? Count on 94 having more ppv buys.
Ok, and if it doesn’t will you publicly admit you were wrong? Not that I necessarily think you will be about the numbers, maybe the winners, but not the numbers. I just want you to publicly admit you were wrong if you turn out to be.
LOL… lots of luck if you plan to do this for everyone posts predictions like this.
MMA is definitely a sport where the best predictions are wild guesses. How many times have we said “Man… Rashad is going to get destroyed.”
I think every rashad fight after sean salmon I said that. He FINALLY earned my respect. took long enough, huh?
I was only referring to the prediction about the PPV buys, not the fights, in terms of publicly admitting he was wrong.
Nah. He’ll deny he ever said that, then call you gay. He has an image to protect.
Im in 100% agreement with Dana that G.S.P vs. Penn 2 will b tops 2 date.
though i am looking forward to gsp vs penn…i also hate that fight because if bj does win then florian has to wait even longer for a title fight with penn and will end up losing all that momentem he has right now….because dana already said the winner will face thiago next…so though i like bj more and wanted him to win earlier i am now rooting for gsp because i would much rather see gsp vs thiago and bj vs florian than just bj vs thiago…..though i definitly will be watching this ppv anyways because i cant pass up machida finally earning his title shot
I dont know how any1 would miss this fight its the biggest 2 date in my op
Cant wait 2 c BJ reaction after G.S.P stops him cuz BJ does not deserve title shot at WW he just walked in the cage ruined GSP win celebration & called him out that was very selfish. & very bad time 2 do it. Dont get me wrong I wanna c the fight just as a super fight! I wish GSP could make 155lbs & take winers belt & then hand it 2 Dana & Dana has a 155 tourni I know that last part is crazy thinking. lol
Dana wake up, ever think more fans have come because of the wwf following of brock lesnar?
Sure fans have been added to the number of fans that were already there because of Lesnar’s WWE following, but more fans of MMA are fans of MMA because they like MMA, not because they are Lesnar fans.