UFC
UFC 185 pay-per-view buys reportedly expected to come in at half the buyrate of UFC 184 and UFC 183
Mar 18, 2015 - 6:15:38 PM UFC 185 pay-per-view buys reportedly expected to come in at half the buyrate of UFC 184 and UFC 183

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Saturday's UFC 185 pay-per-view event is expected to be the lowest drawing of 2015 thus far, but it could still be well ahead of many of 2014's shows.

In the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer (subscription required), Dave Meltzer reports that the earliest indications for UFC 185's pay-per-view buys are coming in around half of the previous two shows. UFC 183 and UFC 184 are each estimated to have done in the 650,000-700,000 buy range, meaning UFC 185 could have surpassed 300,000 buys.

To put that in perspective, only four pay-per-view events in 2014 surpassed 300,000 buys, with eight cards drawing 230,000 buys or less.

It was the second pay-per-view headlined by a Lightweight Championship bout featuring Anthony Pettis, with his previous headlining turn at UFC 164 in August of 2013 drawing 270,000 buys.

Penick's Analysis: This was a stacked pay-per-view card on paper that nevertheless didn't have the same level of names as the previous three cards. Ronda Rousey is simply a proven pay-per-view draw now given how much UFC 184 brought with essentially her as the only known commodity, and UFC 182 and UFC 183 were on the backs of Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier and Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz. These numbers are real solid, and probably more than some expected, and shows that the UFC has continued to do a better job promoting these pay-per-view cards than they did last year.