UFC 91: “Couture vs. Lesnar” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, sold 10,845 tickets for a live gate $4,815,675.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) recently released the figures, indicating that 3,427 complimentary tickets were also issued for the “biggest fight in UFC history.”
The promotion dished out $1,118,000 in UFC 91 fighter salaries for the pay-per-view (PPV) event, as well as $240,000 in additional bonus money for four participants who delivered outstanding performances.
Brock Lesnar defeated Randy Couture via second round technical knockout to capture the heavyweight crown in the UFC 91 main event. Kenny Florian toppled Joe Stevenson with a first round submission in the co-featured bout of the evening, reinforcing his position as the clearcut number one title contender in the 155-pound division.
In fact, UFC President Dana White guaranteed Florian a title shot against lightweight champion BJ Penn in the near future.
For complete results and coverage of “Couture vs. Lesnar” click here and here. To check out the medical suspensions and injuries click here.
32 Comments »
When will the number of PPV buys be known?
Dana said he won’t release them in the canada press conf but they were very close to their estimate a little below. I am thinking somewhere in the 950-1mil region.
Does anyone know what the ppv buys were?
would like to know as well.
I think we will have to wait a little to hear the ppv numbers. about 2 days ago, the ppv #’s for UFC 90 Cote vs. Silva were released, so it will probably be a couple weeks before we learn how UFC 91 did in the ppv’s!
i bet it wasnt 1.2 mill
really? Where did you find the Cote/Silva figures? I dont think they post them on this site.
If Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddell actually end up fighting each other, I think that whatever card it is on could definately break any of the ppv buys the UFC has had up until now. I haven’t really thought about it much, but that would be a giant draw.
was just going to ask that but u know it will be much hight than any shitty wwe crap
I’m actually interested in how Affliction’s show drew for PPV.
I don’t recall seeing a buy rate published anywhere.
According to this article, about a million ppv buys.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2008/11/18/2008-11-18_boxing_facing_toughest_test__ultimate_fi.html
According to a NY Daily News article, it was around a million ppv buys. I tried to leave a link but this site blocked the comment I think.
That says the EXPECT a million, Dana’s been saying that for a while..
OFF TOPIC-I probably missed the thread somewhere but who won that shirt contest over a week ago?
you didn’t miss it.. I haven’t seen it either..
It was supposed to be up a couple of days ago too.
Who won the Playboy?
I won one MONTHS ago, still haven’t seen it yet.
So the UFC make almost 3.5 Million (after fighter pay) without PPV, and they can’t afford to pa John Fitch compensation for lifetime likeness rights?
There alot more people involved in the UFC than the fighters and Dana……
P78. your wasting your time. some of these guys just dont get it and never will. they only see things as one-sided. is dana a dick sometimes? hell yeah, but if you asked alot of employees in america if they thought their boss was a dick, most would say yes. the ufc is a business and dana is the boss. think of other pro sports, nobody likes the nfl’s roger goodell “castro”, nobody likes the nba’s david”too” stern and everyone cant stand mlb’s bud selig. i posted a few days ago that for every 1 ufc fighter that is unhappy with his situation, there are 10 that ARE happy, but nobody cares about the fighters that are happy, just the ones who can stir up controversy and therefore make headlines and gather more hits and posts.
b.w.—-heard something interesting the other day on the radio that kinda stunned me. It goes to all of the image arguements that came up with Fitch (I still find that ridiculous). But in baseball, lets say they sell 100,000 Manny Ramirez jerseys. You know how much Manny makes off of that? $0.00. MLB has the rights to his name, at least off of his jersey and how it is associated with baseball. Thought that was strange.
True, but would their combined salaries account for the other 3.4 Million + PPV money? I think not. The UFC turns a very tidy profit.
And this is a problem? Would you prefer that they not, and go by the wayside like so many other MMA companies?
My point is that the UFC could clearly afford to pay fighters likeness rights – something that they should be doing anyway – and still turn a profit.
Renting out the venue, advertising, paying employees, production costs, etc. are sure to have cost quite a bit. There is a lot more to running a show than selling tickets and paying fighters people.
ABSOLUTELY, but the UFC’s profit is enourmous (as maybe it should be) and they could afford (EASILY) to say have a base salary of 20k!
think aboout how fast the Fertittas became BILLIONAIRES!
The Fertitta’s big money came from the casino business.
Really can’t see why this was the biggest fight of all time, a guy who hasn’t been fighting for a year and has a record of 16-8 and a guys who is ultra green with a record of 2-1 lame I still think it was a fluky shot that put the natural down.
Why did lesnar get a shot because he beat herring LOL what joke, I think it had something to do with white counting on a lot of WWE fans tuning in any buying the ppv.
Psyqo78 youe mom
brock sucks