It doesn’t look like Ronda Rousey’s media blackout leading up to UFC 207 on Dec. 30 had any negative impact on the pay-per-view numbers.
According to a report from Dave Meltzer of MMAFighting.com, the event — which was headlined by a women’s bantamweight championship between title holder Amanda Nunes and Rousey, along with a bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt — pulled in more than one million buys.
From the report:
It was UFC’s fifth 1 million-plus buy show of 2016. The only sport in history that had ever had three 1 million buy shows in the same year was boxing, which did it in 1996, during the heyday of Mike Tyson, who fought three times that year, and in 2011.
The company had only had a few 1 million buy shows in its history prior to this year, with two in 2015, the Rousey vs. Holm fight and the McGregor vs. Jose Aldo fight.
With the projected 1.1 million buys, UFC 207 was in the same range as the company’s debut in New York City, UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor, which was promoted more heavily.
This just goes to show the crossover appeal and impact of Ronda Rousey.
The only question is: will she every fight again after suffering her second consecutive loss? The UFC will certainly hope so, with a second comeback likely drawing even more.
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