Anderson Silva = Box Office Poison?

There’s an ugly rumour going around that UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva isn’t a good pay-per-view draw.  And this isn’t just being stated by challenger Chael Sonnen in his ongoing, relentless verbal attacks on the champion– Silva as “box office poison” is treated by most as gospel.  But is this really the case, or is it just a myth that has been repeated enough that it has become fact?  Since numbers (generally) don’t lie, we took a look at the average buyrate of The Spider’s last five PPV appearances (which takes us back to UFC 82 on March 1, 2008) and compared that to the last five PPV averages of his fellow UFC champions and other luminaries of the sport.  It is worth noting that the average, non-Anderson Silva UFC PPV since UFC 82 gets about 609000 buys.

Average Buyrate Over Past Five PPVs

So the numbers seem to agree with the posit that Anderson Silva can’t get people to buy pay-per-views that he appears on.  Additionally, the only two guys on this list that he outperforms, Mauricio Rua and Frankie Edgar, have yet to headline a card as champion, so their numbers might yet end up higher than Silva’s.  Plus, the UFC gets on average 84000 more customers if The Spider doesn’t appear on a a fight card (which, at $50 a pop equals $4.2 million extra in PPV money).  Now that it actually does appear that Silva is a poor draw, let’s try to figure out why.

Nenhum Fale O Inglês

According to Babel Fish, this means ‘no English’ in Portuguese.  This is the main reason stated for Silva’s inability to sell his fights, and the main one Sonnen is using in his xenophobic rants against Silva.  While it’s true that Silva can speak English, he doesn’t feel comfortable (or feels the need) to use it in interviews or, generally, in public.  It is also worth noting that the vast majority of the fighters that outdraw Silva speak English.  Now this isn’t to say the MMA fans are racist or xenophobes – it’s just easier for a fighter to hype his fight and interact with his fans if he is comfortable speaking English.  While it is quite understandable and within his rights for Silva to prefer to speak Portuguese, he could make himself – and the UFC – more money if he communicated primarily in English.

Styles Make Fights

Silva is the most dangerous, dynamic striker in the MMA world and one of the best mixed martial artists of all-time.  However, that doesn’t always come across in his fights.  Silva tends to coast and clown his opponents, most notably in his last fight versus Demian Maia, which may cause fans to hesitate before they plop down their $49.99 for a pay-per-view.  With no fighter able to pose a significant challenge or threat to Silva (and Silva knows this), his matches often turn into boring affairs, with The Spider toying with his prey before finally trapping him in his net.

The Anonymous Weight Class

The UFC’s middleweight division, while stocked with formidable talent, is rather non-descript.  Other than Silva, it is devoid of stars.  While Sonnen is working hard with his mouth to elevate his “star power”, he is more talk than action.  The main reason the division is “starless” is due to Silva’s dominance – no one wants to stick around a division that they have no reasonable shot at winning the title in.  That’s the main reason the last UFC Middleweight Champion – and the only other true main event talent in the 185lb class – Rich Franklin moved up to 205lbs.  This division has no true main event talent, so Silva has been stuck fighting the likes of Demian Maia, Thales Leites and Patrick Cote – none of them drawing cards.  It doesn’t matter who the fighter is – you aren’t going to draw well fighting the likes of these guys.  It is telling that when Silva did fight a “big name” last – Forrest Griffin – as a co-headliner, the event sold 850000 PPVs.

There is a simple solution to the problem of Anderson Silva basically losing money for the UFC – make him move up to the light heavyweight ranks.  The 205lb division is full of big name guys who could make a load of dough in matches versus Silva, plus the added level of competition in the division would force The Spider to behave and bring his ‘A’ game every time he steps in the cage.  Alas, Silva recently has stated that he plans on staying at 185lb for the rest of his career.  Which means lost money for him and the UFC and lost opportunity for the fans.

Oh, and by the way, how does Silva’s biggest critic, Chael Sonnen, who speaks perfect English and knows how to hype a fight, do as a PPV draw?  His last pay-per-view outing was bought by a measly 275000 homes.