UFC 169 / UFC 170 PPV Sales

New figures have emerged giving an insight into how the recent UFC 169 and UFC 170 events fared on pay-per-view.

According to MMAFighting.com’s Dave Meltzer, UFC 169: Faber Vs Barao II sold 230,000 PPV buys.

That’s a low number, particularly given that Super Bowl Weekend is tradionally one of the UFC’s bigger cards of the year, but on this occasion a late change to the card didn’t help, with bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz pulling out and vacating his title, leaving Urijah Faber to take on Renan Barao again for the belt despite the fact that he’d already been convincingly beaten by him 18 months earlier.

The event did also have a second title fight in the shape of 145lb kingpin Jose Aldo Vs Ricardo Lamas, but there was very little pre-fight heat surrounding that match-up, and it just adds more weight to the argument that the lighter weight champions haven’t yet established themselves as major draws for the promotion.

Meanwhile, UFC 170: Rousey Vs McMann is reported by Meltzer to have garnered 340,000 PPV buys.

That’s not a terrible number by any means for a UFC event headlined by women, but given that Dana White had been saying in the lead-up to Rousey’s latest title fight that she was the biggest star ever in the sport it led to expectations that were going to be difficult to meet.

To be fair, like most other UFC stars Rousey needs the right opponent to help generate a buzz around her fights and while someone like Miesha Tate was a perfect fit in that regard, McMann didn’t prove to be.

There was no animosity between Rousey and McMann whatsoever, McMann didn’t have a lot of time to really establish herself in the UFC before being propelled into title contention, and while her wrestling credentials are undeniably impressive they weren’t enough to really capture the average fans imagination.

All that being said, when you consider that Jon Jones last title defense against Alexander Gustafsson only did 310,000 buys (a low number for Jones who tends to trend closer to the 450-500,000 mark), Rousey’s not doing too badly and if they can ever put together a fight between Cris ‘Cyborg’ and her then it should be a money-spinner.

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.