With UFC 174 Reportedly Doing Under 100,000 Buys, Is It Time For The UFC To Admit Their Strategy Is Failing?

Last Saturday night’s (June 14, 2014) UFC 174 event from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, will probably go down as one of the most derided pay-per-view (PPV) events the company has ever put on. Featuring a flyweight main event title clash between champion Demetrious Johnson and lesser-known challenger Ali Bagautinov, the event drew more than a little criticism for its snore-inducing main card and its anticlimactic main event, where “Mighty Mouse” took home a one-sided decision.

Featuring a massive upset in the headlining bantamweight title fight between formerly dominant champion Renan Barao and upstart challenger TJ Dillashaw, May 24’s UFC 173 from Las Vegas reportedly did some bad numbers despite the shocking results.

However, a speculative report has come from both Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer and Underground member Galanis that UFC 174 did much, much worse. While the numbers are far from confirmed, sources close to the situation are alleging that the flop of an event did less than 100,000 PPV buys, which would mean the event drew less than Bellator’s inaugural PPV of Bellator 120, which took place the week before UFC 173.

In a recent comment, the poster insinuated that these dismal numbers would hopefully force the UFC to examine their recent strategy of expecting fans to pay hard-earned dollars for watered-down cards:

“I’ve heard from a couple of people who would know, that early estimates of 174 buys have it just a bit under 100k. The sole reason I am posting about this (I normally try not to be one of those ratings/buys posters who everyone hates) is because if the show truly did this bad, it will be a good thing for us fans who complain about watered down cards. The UFC’s core audience was really being tested with this card, to see how much they could get away with buys wise, for a card with absolutely no drawing power to the casual viewer.

If this is the case, it sends a strong message to the UFC that the watered down cards are no longer going over with fans. For me, considering the cards are $60 and there is 14 a year.. this is great news.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the number that comes out in the press is just above that, like 125.. If you see the number come out around that area, then trust me, it did under 100k. This has to piss Dana off to no end considering the Bellator show did do a legit 100k

Meltzer is the go to guy when it comes to PPV info for sure.. but he even stated in the Observer today that Google traffic for 174 was under 20k searches… which is absolutely unheard of.

This is really interesting stuff to me, because like I said.. if true, the UFC is going to realize they can’t keep putting on shows like this as a numbered PPV, and expect its fans to continuously just blindly shell out the cash.

That’s a step in the right direction.. they know they are losing PPV buys, and hopefully they step their game up to fix it, by putting on more big fights per card. We can hope anyway.”

Indeed we can hope, because with an insane amount of UFC programming being shoved down fans’ throats (and let’s be honest, far from all of it is actually good anymore), there’s only so much time before the casual fan stops allowing Dana White & Co. to insult their intelligence and quits watching altogether. Only 20,000 Google searches for a PPV event is absolutely unheard of, considering that big events like UFC 168 usually average around one-five million searches.

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This is a topic that has been debated over and over again, but that will never stop unless the UFC actually makes some change. Instead, they’re only putting on more and more events with almost of all of their big-name stars on the sidelines.

That’s not a recipe for success.

Part of the recent drop in PPV buys is the simple fact that UFC 173 and UFC 174 were headlined by lighter weight title fights, and it’s tough to lean on bantamweight and flyweight stars to carry numbered PPV events. The divisions just aren’t that deep, and in the case of Barao, he just wasn’t that big of a star in the United States despite his dominant run before facing Dillashaw.

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As for flyweights, well, that’s an even shallower division with a dominant champion in “Mighty Mouse.” He may be nearly flawless, but casual MMA fans just don’t want to see him pick apart an unknown opponent for five rounds.

It may be right, it may be wrong, but they just don’t.

And the UFC has to start realizing this. Sorry for ranting, but the recent trend of UFC events has me a bit worried about the future of the sport we all love. It’s just too much of a good thing, and that rarely works out.

The UFC needs to realize that and start making events that are worth buying. Hyping lackluster cards with endless Linkin Park-fueled commercials will not hide the fact that their product is becoming seriously lackluster, and that could legitimately halt the rise of a sport deemed the fastest-growing in the world.

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However, they probably won’t, and with a number of doubleheaders set to “grace” our television screens this summer, White and his minions are probably too bullheaded to admit that the writing is on the wall and their aggressive strategy has failed.

If not, then White is going to have a lot more press conferences to avoid.

Photo: Anne-Marie Sorvin for USA TODAY Sports