UFC 141 Results: How Will Brock Lesnar's Retirement Affect the UFC?

Brock Lesnar has apparently retired from the UFC.

Tonight in the main event of UFC 141, Alistair Overeem punished Lesnar en route to a first-round TKO.

The bigger news, however, came after the fight when Lesnar announced he will not fight again in the Octagon.

"I've had a really difficult couple of years with my disease," said Lesnar, who has suffered from diverticulitis, to Joe Rogan during the telecast after the fight. "I'm going to officially say that this is the last time you'll see me in the Octagon...Brock Lesnar is officially retired."

If Lesnar stays true to his word (and there's no real indication that he won't), his loss will be huge for the UFC.

How huge is the loss? The proof is in the data. According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, Lesnar fought twice in 2010 (defending his heavyweight belt against Shane Carwin, then losing to Cain Velasquez) and racked up 2,100,000 pay-per-view buys combined for those. He became only the second person to headline two pay-per-views that hit the million buys mark in the same year. 

Who was the other one? Just some guy named Mike Tyson.

Small wonder Lesnar is—or was—the highest-paid athlete in MMA, according to a study from ESPN.

He is not only MMA's pay-per-view king, he's the pay-per-view king, period. 

In a lot of ways, this was a big year for the UFC. A new TV deal with Fox. The purchase of Strikeforce. Unprecedented momentum both at home and abroad. And oh yeah, a ton of amazing events.

But fighter injuries plagued the cards. UFC on Fox 1, while great for fans, was somewhat anticlimactic for its short title fight. No pay-per-view topped a million buys this year. Lesnar alone has headlined two of those. You do the math.

Just as the UFC breaks into the mainstream, it loses its most mainstream star. Can the UFC recover? Sure it can. But without Lesnar pulling the wagon, it may be slower going for a while.