According to reports, the UFC’s struggle to garner any real interest with their pay-per-view cards continues on.
UFC 226, which took place in last weekend’s cap off to international fight week, was expected to be the biggest fight card of the year, and while it actually may be, that’s really not saying much due to the straight decline of interest in the UFC’s product since the new ownership took office.
Ratings Guru Dave Meltzer has it:
The early indications for UFC 226 are disappointing, as the prelims prior to the pay-per-view did 668,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1. The number was almost identical to UFC 225 on June 9, which did 667,000 viewers.
It’s not a good sign because the pay-per-view main event, with light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier beating heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic in a rare champion vs. champion fight was supposed to be far bigger than the Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero main event in June.
The expectation going in was that this would be the biggest show so far this year. But the most preliminary of pay-per-view estimates have the show doing a little under 400,000 buys. There are those who believe the loss of Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega hurt interest, but Cormier vs. Miocic on its own should have been able to do bigger numbers.
