UFC 91 Draws Big Numbers, But Not 1.2 Million Worth

Were you one of the 800,000-850,000 (numbers courtesy of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer) people to tune into UFC 91 to watch Brock Lesnar become the new UFC heavyweight champion? I know I was.

Dana White and the UFC projected bigger numbers (around 400,000 more buys), but people are saying that it was just so they could get ESPN to cover the event. If that was the case, then it worked out perfectly.

The reports show that it looks to have beaten UFC 61 (Ortiz vs. Shamrock) but not UFC 66 (Ortiz vs. Liddell). At any rate, though, the No. 2 highest selling PPV of all time isn't bad at all considering the shape of our economy.

I have a feeling we are going to be seeing some numbers on par or possibly even bigger with some of the events coming up, as well.

UFC 92—Dec. 27

Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans (for UFC light heavyweight title)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir (for interim UFC heavyweight title)
Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva

UFC 94—Jan. 31

Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn (for welterweight title)
Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva
Jon Fitch vs. Akihiro Gono
Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim

With the right advertisement, these two cards alone can be blockbuster successes. We'll see how Dana White and company handle these ones.

P.S.: All of my new articles from now on and other great MMA news can also be found over at Atlantic MMA.