There was a long-standing contention, written about on this very site, that Anderson Silva couldn’t draw flies to pay-per-views that he headlined. While that might have been the case in the past, Silva’s most recent appearances in the Octagon have painted a very different picture. UFC 117, headlined by Silva vs Chael Sonnen sold a very respectable 600,000 buys, and his last appearance, UFC 126, did even better, with early estimates having it in the 700,000-750,000 range. That would make it the highest selling Anderson Silva headlined PPV of all-time (UFC 101 sold better but Silva was the co-main event of that one).
It certainly didn’t hurt matters much that UFC 126 was a stacked event, with several other big names on the card. Not only was this Silva’s best box office performance, it was the best also for veterans Vitor Belfort and Rich Franklin. In fact, UFC 126’s sales results have moved Franklin into the top 10 on our all-time UFC PPV draw list, where he joins fellow UFC 126ers Silva and Forrest Griffin. And if you want even more history, UFC 126 is the highest selling PPV headlined by two Brazilians. So not only did the event deliver in terms of excitement, it proved to be quite historical, at least in fiscal terms.
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