Mixed martial arts by the numbers
PAY PER VIEW BUYS
Ultimate Fighting Championship: 5.1 million on 11 events in 2007
World Wrestling Entertainment: 5.2 million on 15 events in 2007
HBO Boxing: 4.8 million on eight events in 2007
GROWTH IN VALUE
2001: The UFC was purchased for $2 million.
2008: The UFC is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion.
COMPARED TO OTHER SPORTS
UFC 66 (Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz): 1.05 million PPV buys
Wrestlemania 23: 1.2 million PPV buys
Boxing (Floyd Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya): 2.15 million PPV buys
Boxing in 2008: Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez generated 400,000 PPV buys.
UFC in 2008: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (UFC 81, Feb. 2) generated 600,000 PPV buys.
More numbers
• UFC 86 (Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson): 11,000 fans in attendance, a sellout crowd, and the gate was $4.2 million.
• UFC 87: More than 12,000 tickets have been sold for the Saturday event at the Target Center and officials expect to make more than $2.2 million off the gate.
about the writer
The last week of the regular season brought a shakeup, with Michigan playing spoiler against rival Ohio State, and Iowa taking on Nebraska.
