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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
As expected, Saturday's UFC 121 event was another major pay-per-view event for the UFC, and depending on where the final numbers come down the Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez headlined event may be one of the biggest pay-per-view events in UFC history.
Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer reports that the early estimates, which at this point are very rough estimates, have the event at slightly over one million buys. However, he mentions that it's too early to tell if the event surpassed July's UFC 116 fight between Lesnar and Shane Carwin.
That event brought in just shy of 1.2 million buys, ranking it as the second biggest event behind UFC 100. The UFC has broken a million buys for six events, with only UFC 100 and UFC 116 bringing more than 1.05 million. Brock Lesnar, should this buyrate stay at one million or higher when a closer estimate comes in, will have accounted for around six million pay-per-view buys for the UFC since entering the organization.
Penick's Analysis: It's not surprising in the least with how well the Primetime shows performed and with how much press there was for the fight. I think it will ultimately surpass all but UFC 116 and UFC 100, but it could also sneak into the second place spot. The UFC may have trouble reaching a million again outside of the GSP-Josh Koscheck fight in December for awhile with Lesnar's loss, but at the same time Velasquez can be built into a bigger star himself if he can keep winning fights in the manner he's been doing. The UFC will break the pay-per-view record again this year, but may have a tougher time in matching it in 2011. Only time will tell on that front.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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