Tito Ortiz shares pay-per-view estimate for Chuck Liddell rematch

Last Saturday night, in the main event of the first ever mixed martial arts event promoted by Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy promotions, Tito Ortiz stepped into the cage with his fellow UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell for a third time.

Unlike the pair’s first two meetings, Tito Ortiz won this fight, putting his long-time rival down with a punch in the first round.

While this was a feel-good moment for Ortiz, who had long sought an elusive win over Chuck Liddell, the verdict is still out on whether the fight will be a financial success for him.

Ahead of the fight, Ortiz repeatedly explained that he was receiving only a small guaranteed purse, and that his payday would come primarily from his portion of the pay-per-view sales, as well as segment of the gate and merchandise sales.

“This fight, I’m not getting paid no money,” he explained to MMAjunkie in the buildup to the fight. “I’m not getting a million dollar payday guaranteed. I make money when someone buys the pay-per-view. I make money when someone buys a ticket to the fight.”

In other words, for Tito Ortiz to make any real, life-changing money from this Chuck Liddell rematch, the pay-per-view needed to perform well.

Well, speaking on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday, he said that he’s heard the pay-per-view did somewhere around 200k buys. If this figure is accurate, it certainly can’t be called a home run, but given that many members of the MMA community seemed to think the pay-per-view would bomb, it does seem like something of a victory.

Tito Ortiz tells @arielhelwani he's heard #LiddellOrtiz3 had a buy rate in the 200k range #HelwaniShow

— Nolan King (@mma_kings) November 26, 2018

We should get a much more specific estimate for the Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz pay-per-view buys in the near future. Stay tuned for that.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/26/2018.