UFC 199 on June 4th is estimated to have delivered in the region of 320,000 pay-per-view buys.
That’s the word according to a new report from Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, though as always it’s more of a ballpark figure rather than an official number taken directly from the UFC, since they don’t disclose that information.
320,000 buys would make this the second lowest selling PPV event of the year so far, beating out UFC 195: Lawler Vs Condit which did 300,000 sales back in January.
UFC 199 was originally supposed to be headlined by a middleweight title rematch between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman, but when Weidman pulled out injured, Michael Bisping stepped in on short notice and produced a major upset on the night by seizing the title with a first round finish.
The co-main event that night was a bantamweight title fight between old rivals Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, while other main card fights included the likes of Max Holloway Vs Ricardo Lamas and Dan Henderson Vs Hector Lombard.
Apparently that wasn’t enough to lure in fans in large numbers to the PPV broadcast though, particuarly with UFC 200 looming large on the horizon at the time.
The company’s biggest event by far up to this point was unquestionably UFC 196: McGregor Vs Diaz, which proved to be one of the biggest shows ever with 1.6 million PPV buys, easily eclipsing the second biggest show of 2016, UFC 197: Jones Vs OSP, which did 450,000.
We’ll have to wait and see what kind of numbers UFC 200 pulled, though the expectation is that it will have done north of 1 million buys, and there’s a good chance it won’t be the last show to breach the seven figure barrier this year as there’s also high hopes for UFC 202: McGregor Vs Diaz II next month, while the promotion’s first show at Madison Square Garden in NYC at UFC 205 in November is also guaranteed to feature another blockbuster fight card.
