Jeff Sherwood/Sherdog.com
White admitted the UFC 92
numbers came in much
higher than expected.
In a stunning revelation, UFC President Dana White told ESPN The Magazine’s Web site that UFC 92 on Dec. 27 “crushed” the UFC 91 card on Nov. 15 in terms of pay-per-view buys. White admitted the UFC 92 numbers came in much higher than expected. Estimates for the UFC 91 show, headlined by Randy Couture’s return to the Octagon against Brock Lesnar, have ranged from 800,000 to 1,000,000 buys -- just below the UFC 66 record for most buys in company history.
White said UFC 92 -- stacked with three main events pairing Rashad Evans with Forrest Griffin, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with Frank Mir and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with Wanderlei Silva -- did 150,000 to 175,000 more buys than UFC 91. Per company policy, White did not announce specific buy rates. While many predicted UFC 91 would not satisfy the hype of “the Biggest Fight in UFC History,” virtually no observers pegged UFC 92 as exceeding it. The number undoubtedly puts the UFC over the threshold -- as calculated by Yahoo Sports! Dave Meltzer -- it needed to earn a remarkable title: the organization to attract the most buys in a single year in the history of pay-per-view, a record set by the WWE in 2001.