Brock Lesnar's Financial Impact on The UFC

In 2002, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) was depositing millions of dollars in revenue from the wrestling performances of their Heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar.  A man of his tremendous size and stature with amazing athletic ability placed the future of the WWE on his shoulders and guerilla pressed the omnipresent wrestling organization’s popularity into the stratosphere. 

His ability to fly gracefully through the air or explosively drive his opponent into the turnbuckle engaged millions of WWE fans worldwide.  A larger-than-life character with menacing strength, power and sellable charisma, Brock overtook the likes of the Undertaker, Edge, The Hardys and The Rock as the face of the WWE and catapulted the organization’s dominance into Hulk Hogan-like proportions.

After a three year term with the WWE, Brock took his athletic ability to the National Football League where he tried out for the Minnesota Vikings.  Due to a tumultuous tryout filled with violations both on and off the football field, Brock was the last man cut from the Vikings pre-season roster.  Ultimately turning down an opportunity to play for the Minnesota Viking’s European football team, Brock turned his competitive focus towards mixed martial arts.

Brock Lesnar’s welcomed arrival into the UFC was of a global magnitude.  With the millions of WWE fans around the world backing their wrestling sensation, Brock’s transition into ultimate fighting brought with it hordes of new fans to the fight game.  Unlike Kimbo Slice, who was nothing more than a YouTube-followed back yard brawler, Lesnar’s athletic ability and overwhelming strength and power secured his talent within the cage. 

Not only was Brock a genetic phenom, he also had the skill set to win fights against the best practitioners in the world.  Dana White and the brass of the UFC had their “diamond in the rough.”  With intense training and a continued evolution of Brock’s fighting abilities, this future champion would create millions of dollars in revenue for the UFC and its constituents. 

At 6’3” 265 pounds of chiseled muscle with a world class wrestling pedigree, Brock has proven to be a worthy adversary within the octagon.  Winning the UFC’s Heavyweight title at UFC 91 in November of 2008 with an impressive TKO victory over Randy Couture, Lesnar secured the loftiest of titles within just four fights.  Defending his title successfully on two occasions, Brock would be dismantled at UFC 121 in October of 2010 by the striking prowess of current champion Cain Velasquez. 

With only seven professional mixed martial arts fights under Lesnar’s belt, a fighter with this lack of experience would typically not be such a big draw for the UFC.  The truth, however, is quite the contrary. 

Brock’s financial impact for the UFC is comparable to his previous impact within the WWE.

In business terms, a fighter’s impact is determined by pay-per-view buys and gate sales.  The more revenue that is earned for the UFC by a fighter’s reputation and talent within the octagon, the greater the value for that promotion and subsequently, a greater impact to the bottom line.  In the past, marquee names with global appeal for the UFC included Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Georges St. Pierre—all four fighters created tremendous revenue for the UFC from increased pay-per-view buys as well as attendance at the live events. 

Prior to Brock’s arrival in the UFC in 2008, the highest single grossing event with the most pay-per-view buys and gate sales was UFC 66 in 2006, headlined by Chuck Liddell versus Tito Ortiz II.  That single event generated 1,050,000 PPV buys as well as $5.4 million in ticket sales.[i] 

Fueling from years of bad blood between Chuck and Tito as well as championship belts to each of their credits, UFC 66 was a tremendous success for the UFC and earned the promotion tens of millions of dollars in revenue.  To place this fight into perspective, the sum of the gate sales of UFC 68 (Tim Sylvia versus Randy Couture) and UFC 69 (Georges St. Pierre versus Matt Serra) narrowly surpassed UFC 66 with a total of $5.8 million dollars in ticket sales.[ii] 

Brock Lesnar’s brash, arrogant and larger than life arrival into the UFC would shake the business of mixed martial arts to its core.  His explosive style, mythological physique and utter dominance of world class fighters left fans captivated and wanting more of the one time professional wrestler.  The UFC quickly capitalized on “Brock-mania”, marketing this avalanche of a man to the world and arranging top notch competition for Brock to challenge. 

UFC 81 was Lesnar’s debut versus Frank Mir. 

Storming from his corner with a flurry of punches and explosive takedowns, Brock did not disappoint the fans as his intensity and raw athleticism dominated a futile Frank Mir for the opening minutes.  Turning the tables, Mir’s experience and high level jiu-jitsu rewarded him a last gasp win as he forced Lesnar to tap from a heel hook within the first round.  Beaten and battered, Frank Mir had escaped Brock’s vicious attack, capitalizing on Lesnar’s inexperience within the octagon. 

Even though Brock Lesnar’s official UFC debut ended in a loss, the world witnessed a destructive, wrecking machine and the future UFC Heavyweight champion. 

Over the next two years, Brock would headline five more pay-per-view events—with each topping top the previous in both pay-per-view numbers and ticket sales.  The combined gate numbers in which Brock was the headlining fight is $20.8 million for six separate events.  In comparison, two of the UFC’s biggest draws are Chuck Liddell and Georges St. Pierre.  Gate sales from both fighters combined six main event fights between 2006 and 2008 earned the UFC $24.4 million. 

Single handedly, Brock Lesnar nearly generated the same dollar amount in gate sales that Chuck Liddell and Georges St. Pierre provided together over a similar two year period.  Additionally, UFC 66 marked the previous highest number of pay-per-views buys with 1,050,000.  UFC 100 skyrocketed past that number with 1,600,000 PPV buys featuring Brock Lesnar versus Frank Mir as the main event.[iii] 

In terms of dollars and cents, for simplification purposes, assuming each PPV buy is $50, UFC 100 eclipsed UFC 66 by $27.5 million in just pay-pre-view profits alone.  That number does not include the $5.1 million dollars in reported gate sales or additional revenue streams, including advertisement income, merchandise and concessions.  In short, Brock Lesnar is a money making machine for the UFC. 

So what now for this earnings tidal wave? 

Will the UFC continue to promote Brock Lesnar after suffering a brutal beating at the hands of Cain Velasquez? 

From a fighting perspective, Brock is very raw.  With a very solid wrestling base, Brock will continue to improve his stand up game.  Through improvements in his punches, kicks, knees and elbows, Lesnar will become a more balanced fighter in the cage.  His overwhelming strength and power will continue to serve him well as he continually improves his fight game.  Reaching a comfortable arsenal of strikes, Brock will also continue to enhance his ground abilities through jiu-jitsu training. 

The ultimate goal of Brock Lesnar’s camp would be to develop his talents so that his stand up is equal to that of his ground attack.  When that occurs, Lesnar then will be rewarded with a rematch with Cain Velasquez. 

In the meantime, the UFC should continue to market Brock Lesnar as one of their faces for the promotion.  From a business perspective, Lesnar is the biggest draw within the organization.  Brock can surely guarantee the UFC a one million buy pay-per-view mark for his main event fights.  Additionally, Brock’s legendary mystique will continue to flourish as the world watches a fighter with only seven professional fights to his record improve with each event. 

He will eventually become a very well rounded fighter capable of attacking on both his feet or on the mat.  This blossoming of Brock’s talents will be enjoyable to watch and will provide the UFC with a consistent non-title draw, while Cain Velasquez becomes a household name.  As Velasquez’s popularity grows, the UFC will capitalize on his Mexican roots and finally reach the millions of Latin fans who admire and praise combat sports. 

As Brock Lesnar keeps the country enthralled with his performances in the octagon, Cain Velasquez will bring the UFC south of the border.  This is a win-win situation for the brass of the UFC and the earnings potential for the promotion will reach its highest levels of all time.  I will discuss this marriage of enterprising heavyweights and the paralleled earnings outlook for the UFC in a future post.

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[i] http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/pay-per-view/, November 12, 2010.

[ii] http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/pay-per-view/, November 12, 2010.

[iii] http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/pay-per-view/, November 12, 2010.