UFC Rumors: UFC 225 Buyrate Reportedly Very Low

The wrestling world seemingly was focused outside of the squared circle this past Saturday night, as former WWE Superstar CM Punk stepped into the octagon for his second career fight at UFC 225 in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois.

Of course we all know by now that Punk fell by unanimous decision to Mike Jackson after toughing it through the full three rounds, whether that’s bad news for his wrestling fans or not is up for debate. There’s more news coming out of UFC 225 that is certainly bad however.

The Los Angeles Times’ Lance Pugmire has a new report about a court appearance for the controversial Conor McGregor stemming from his tirade in the Barclays Center parking garage in April (which you can check out here). However, Pugmire also notes in the report that UFC has struggled with pay-per-view buys, stating that an “industry official” revealed that early estimates for UFC 225 are at less than 150,000.

EA’s Take: Let’s start with whether I buy or sell those numbers and right now, I have no reason to not believe it. Pay-per-view numbers overall for all walks of entertainment are generally down. UFC has had a real lack of star power of late though, which is clearly why someone the skill level of CM Punk is even on the main card of a PPV. That’s the only reason he’s there, name value, which is fine. Clearly it didn’t help much here, but I can say personally I couldn’t even tell you what the main event was and if you’re relying on a guy who got his ass handed to him in his only career fight for support, you’re porked. Unless you’re a die-hard MMA fan, you aren’t paying attention to this. If Ronda Rousey’s on the card, I’m aware of it. Same goes for Conor McGregor, Brock Lesnar. These are polarizing figures that the sport no longer has, at least for the time being.

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