UFC 60: 800,000 PPV Buys, $16 MILLION goes to K-1?!

[Matt Boone]

According to the Complete Value Tudo Access blog, UFC 60 "Hughes vs. Gracie" scored 800,000 pay-per view buys, bringing in somewhere along the lines of $32 million. Apparently out of the 32, K-1 and FEG received $16 million for "lending" Royce Gracie to the UFC for that fight.

If that's true, first off the amt. to K-1 is fucking nutty and secondly that PPV buyrate if thats legit is nothing short of amazing. That's right there with De La Hoya's fight with Mayorga this year which was itself an insane number.

Only bad thing would be, UFC has gone up every PPV in buys but there's really nowhere to go but down now. I don't see UFC doing over 800,000 and their only real shot will be with Shamrock-Ortiz II coming up or the inevitable Liddell-Ortiz II sometime late this year or during 2007. I don't see how any other match will draw that kind of business.

[fe4tw]

Holy shit! 800,000 PPV buys? Goddamn. Royce/Hughes was a huge ass draw, but I hope that the buyrates will remain high and at least constantly 500,000 or so buys. Oh man, the next few years in MMA are going to be interesting with the UFC hitting it big and Pride getting fucked with the FujiTV deal.

[Rhino_Man]

Ya think Shamrock v Gracie can beat it?????

[Matt Boone]

There won't be a Shamrock vs. Gracie fight in UFC, but if there was even that one I think wouldn't sell as much. One of the main selling points of 60 was the myth of Gracie to the North American audience who was fans of the original UFC tournament shows. That myth was badly exposed by Hughes, and the same audience I mentioned that drew 60 already knows Shamrock is past his prime and can't hang on a top level in today's era anymore. So fans would recognize it as what it is, a nostalgia fight. That's not to say it wouldn't do good business because it would do great business. I just don't think it'd top 800,000 buys.

We still need to wait on more information before I can go around quoting that 800,000 mark for 60 as it is. I know Complete Vale Tudo Access knows there stuff, but I haven't heard anything else about it from anyone else so I can't really say for sure if that number is on or not.

[WandAXE]

Tell you the truth It wasnt really a good card it was more hype. Its true what u said Matt, Gracies myth was pretty much the whole draw to the PPV, Hughes actually had way more to loose than Gracie did. Thats why I took one look at the card and knew that wasnt my plan on a saturday nite.

[nole]

That was the first ufc i didnt order in a long time. I didnt like the card at all the only people i wanted to see were mike swick and diego. But come on everyone already knew matt was going to destroy royce. PPV was not worth that card.

[WandAXE]

Sorry Nole , but who the hell has Swick beat for you to be jockn him so hard

[MMA_Fan]

Originally Posted by nole

That was the first ufc i didnt order in a long time. I didnt like the card at all the only people i wanted to see were mike swick and diego. But come on everyone already knew matt was going to destroy royce. PPV was not worth that card.

$16 mil? 800,000 buys? I don't know if I'm sold on that...

[nole]

that alot of ppv's but it still wasnt as good of a card as 59, 58, 57, etc.....
it wasnt worth it to me when it was pretty predictible

[WandAXE]

That sounds crazy but I can buy it only because UFC has new fans that will but into some hype like that. Yall have to understand there are alot of new people to UFC , but me as a hard core MMA fan I have to belive that the figure might be true