D. Mandel/Sherdog.com
Early reports of pay-per-view buys for UFC 106 appear to call into question whether Tito Ortiz, long one of the sport’s most bankable draws, still pulls weight with the viewing public.
The Wrestling Observer reported that last Saturday’s event, headlined by Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin, looks to have attracted between 330,000 and 375,000 buys, one of the UFC’s lowest buy rates this year. The main event marked Ortiz’s first UFC fight in 18 months against an opponent who has historically also done well in attracting pay-per-view orders.
Despite the incredible growth the UFC has seen since 2006, the UFC 106 buy range is lower than the one for the pair’s first fight at UFC 59, which drew about 425,000 buys. It is also lower than UFC 104, a card thought to have much less marquee value with Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Rua on top (450,000 to 500,000).
Ortiz has always been a cash cow for the UFC when put on pay-per-views against marketable opponents. His UFC 66 fight against Chuck Liddell in Dec. 2006 held the company’s all-time buy rate record of 1.05 million buys until UFC 100 this past July, and his fights with Ken Shamrock drew watershed numbers.
The numbers drew the inevitable analysis about whether the UFC reached a plateau this summer on pay-per-view.