Early estimates on the UFC 107 buyrate reveal that back-to-back disappointing performances for UFC 105 (televised card featuring Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera) and UFC 106 (Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin PPV) were not clear signs of waning interest in the overall UFC product.
UFC 107, which featured BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez and Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo as the headline bouts, drew at least 620,000 buys, according to F4WOnline.com. While far from a UFC record-setter, by doing almost double what UFC 106 did in November, UFC 107 ended up a big winner for the company.
Coming just a week after the live “Ultimate Finale” special on Spike TV, the card was still subject to the market saturation effect and thus sparked little premature expectation of a dominant performance. But the drawing power of BJ Penn and Frank Mir was cemented with the show, as the two led the card to a strong buyrate despite facing opponents who were not proven pay-per-view draws.
The Hawaiian Penn, in particular, deserves credit, as Honolulu represented the strongest per-capita market.
Yet one cannot deny the effect Mir’s heated pre-fight promos had in establishing the event as must-see. And though few gave Sanchez a chance on paper, he remains a well-known fighter with an impressive portfolio of “fight of the year” caliber bouts–he did not spark the buyrate, but his presence definitely did not hurt the show’s appeal. Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida also represented a stronger-than-usual second-from-the-top bout.
