UFC 146 Does Impressive PPV Sales

The early estimates for UFC 146’s pay-per-view buyrate are in, and they are reportedly (by Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer) very good.  The all-heavyweight main card, headlined by Junior dos Santos vs Frank Mir, sold in the 560,000-580,000 range.  This makes it the third-highest selling UFC PPV in the past year, topped only by UFC 141 (Lesnar vs Overeem – 800,000 buys) and UFC 145 (Jones vs Evans – 700,000 buys).

This is all the more impressive considering the injury/suspension drama that decimated the original card for Saturday’s PPV.  No doubt that dos Santos vs Alistair Overeem would have sold quite a few more PPVs if The Reem hadn’t “pissed hot”.  Plus the event happened on a long weekend in the States when many people may have been away from their TVs, and around 7 million sports fans who were at home that evening ended up watching the NBA playoffs.