UFC 213 and Bellator NYC estimated pay-per-view numbers released

The estimated pay-per-view numbers for UFC 213 and Bellator NYC have been released and they are estimated to be rather low.

According to Dave Meltzer’s report for MMA Fighting, UFC 213 is projected to be in the range of 125,000 to 150,000 pay-per-view buys. According to Meltzer, UFC 213 has brought in one of the lowest buy rates over the past 10 years aside from “some shows” headlined by UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson.

The July 8 UFC 213 event lost the main event featuring UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes and challenger Valentina Shevchenko as Nunes pulled out of the day of the fight claiming to have “chronic sinusitis.” The UFC middleweight interim fight between Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero was then bumped up as the main event where Whittaker ended up winning by unanimous decision.

Bellator’s first pay-per-view card in a few years is estimated to have done 90,000 to 130,000, according to Meltzer. The Bellator NYC card, which took place on June 24 featured Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva as the main event as well as the Bellator debut of Fedor Emelianenko who faced Matt Mitrione, along with the Bellator lightweight and welterweight title fights on the pay-per-view card.

Given those estimated numbers for Bellator NYC, Spike Senior VP David Schwarz said the event was a success and they plan on doing another pay-per-view event in the future.

“I can say we are all very pleased with everything from the Bellator PPV – that, of course, includes the record gate, record domestic attendance, strong numbers for Bellator 180 (the two hour prelims on Spike) and great exposure for the brand, and great momentum as we plan our next PPV. Details coming.”

Meltzer’s report also estimated the recent boxing pay-per-view card featuring the rematch between Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev doing around 130,000 buys, down from their initial fight estimated to be around 160,000 buys.

The numbers are low in comparison to recent Conor McGregor UFC pay-per-view cards where the current UFC lightweight champion has brought in over a million buys in multiple events. However, even those numbers are pale in comparison to what is expected for the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor boxing match. The Mayweather vs McGregor sponsorship package is predicting a mind-boggling 7 million buys in the U.S. and 1.4 million in the U.K while noting that the richest fight to date featuring Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao did 4.4 million buys in the U.S. and 700,000 in the U.K. back in 2015.

on 7/21/2017.