By now, everyone has read or heard the reports about the business success of last Saturday’s UFC 190: Rousey vs. Correia pay-per-view from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but just how big of a box office blockbuster was the Ronda Rousey hosted event?
According to industry experts, UFC 190 out-sold last month’s UFC 189 pay-per-view by a considerable amount.
What does this mean?
Well, according to early estimates, UFC 189: McGregor vs. Mendes, which took place just three weeks prior to UFC 190, was the most purchased pay-per-view event thus far in 2015.
That was, however, until the Queen of MMA descended from her throne to grace her adoring public inside the world-famous Octagon, in the home country of her opponent — Bethe Correia — no less.
According to Tapology, a website that keeps in-depth statistics on the business side of sporting events, MMA and boxing in particular, UFC 189, headlined by Conor McGregor and Chad Mendes, the latter of which was a last-minute replacement for champion Jose Aldo, drew an estimated 850,000 buys on pay-per-view.
It’s worth noting, however, that other industry experts have tapped UFC 189 at 900,000 or more pay-per-views sold.
What’s most impressive about this statistic is the fact that regardless of the projections for the McGregor-Mendes headlined event, which took place on July 11, 2015 in Las Vegas Nevada, the Rousey-Correia event, which took place three weeks later, August 1, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is being touted as a bigger box office success.
While there are no specific figures available at this point, one would assume that if Rousey’s show out-sold McGregor’s, knowing McGregor’s did 850-900,000 on pay-per-view, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to make the claim that UFC 190: Rousey vs. Correia did in excess of one million buys on pay-per-view.
Once again, it’s clear to tell why UFC President Dana White is so confident that a potential Rousey vs. Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino bout would sell over 2.5 million buys on pay-per-view, and easily become the most financially successful event in UFC history.
