UFC 124 Buyrate – GSP is MVP

Early estimates of UFC 124’s pay-per-view buyrate have rolled in recently, and the results are very encouraging for the Zuffa’s coffers.  It appears that anywhere between 735000 and 875000 people plunked down their $49.99 (or more for HD) for the event, making it the fifth highest selling UFC PPV of the year.  Considering Stefan Struve vs Sean McCorkle was your co-main event, that is a very good selling PPV.  Perhaps I should repeat myself so that what I just typed sinks in: STEFAN STRUVE VS SEAN MCCORKLE WAS THE CO-MAIN EVENT!!!

So why the high numbers?  The fact that Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck were coaches on The Ultimate Fighter definitely helped things – the PPV featuring the showdown between the TUF coaches historically always sell well (three out of the past five had done over 1million buys).  Also, Koscheck’s penchant for trash-talking certainly helped things, but coming into this event he only averages around 420000 in buys when he’s the headliner.  No, the real star of this show is GSP, who showed once again why he is the greatest PPV seller in UFC history.

UFC 124 actually did worse business than usual for St-Pierre, who recently sells in the 900000 range (although it is still good enough to bump up his PPV buyrate average to third best all-time)  Nonetheless, he remains the only non-heavyweight on the UFC roster that is guaranteed to convince people to stay home on their couch on a Saturday night.