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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Brock Lesnar's status as the top draw in mixed martial arts was solidified at UFC 116, as the event became the second of the year to top one million pay-per-view buys.
With Shane Carwin being a relative unknown to most fans until his knockout of Frank Mir in March vaulted him to the title shot, Lesnar was the singular draw for this card, and according to Dave Meltzer in The Wrestling Observer, the event will wind up bringing the second or third most pay-per-view buys of any UFC event.
Meltzer reports that the numbers are trending strong, and peg the event between 1 million and near 1.3 million buys.
The biggest buyrate for an MMA event was the 1.6 million drawn by Lesnar's last fight, at UFC 100 in his rematch against Frank Mir. But that card benefited from being the historic 100th numbered event, having the UFC's second biggest draw in Georges St. Pierre also defending his Championship, and having the coaches fight between Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping from the Ultimate Fighter's ninth season in the number three spot.
Still, Lesnar's draw continues to increase as he proves himself as a legitimate mixed martial artist. With another fight left in 2010, against Cain Velasquez in October, Lesnar is all but assured to set a record for most buys drawn in a year by one fighter.
Penick's Analysis: Lesnar is the unequivocal top draw in MMA right now, and with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. once again not being able to come together to put on boxing's biggest super fight, Lesnar may prove to be the top draw in all of combat sports come this time next year.
To put this in perspective, Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans topped a million buys for the two of them with four extra weeks of build up from the Primetime show, not to mention the tension that built from 12 weeks of TUF. This fight with Shane Carwin brought people in for Lesnar and Lesnar alone, and the fight didn't get half the push the UFC 114 received from the UFC.
The interest was in Lesnar, his return, and how he'd do against his toughest challenge in Carwin, and it brought this many viewers in. That's damned impressive; and with a likely stronger supporting cast for his fight with Velasquez in October, Lesnar and the UFC are likely to top the 1 million mark yet again.
RELATED STORY: UFC QUOTABLES: Chris Leben says he thought his submission victory over Yoshihiro Akiyama happened in the second round at UFC 116: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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