BOOM

Ronda Rousey isn't a box office knockout for UFC 157 tickets


While Ronda Rousey was the most talked about new star in mixed martial arts in 2012, it was considered a major risk when it was announced she would have her first match in the UFC as a pay-per-view headliner.

While major women's matches have done well as far as television ratings are concerned, only one MMA fight, the 2009 battle with Gina Carano vs. Cris "Cyborg" Santos, was a big ticket seller in a major arena as the main event. And no women's fight had been on, let alone headlined, a successful MMA pay-per-view show.

Furthering the risk is that Rousey's first opponent in defense of her UFC women's bantamweight title, essentially the former Strikeforce title belt being brought over, Liz Carmouche (7-2), was a name only known to hardcore MMA fans.

The location, the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., was also a risk. While Rousey is from Southern California, the Los Angeles/Anaheim market has never been an easy one after the immediate sellout of the company's debut show there in 2006. Generally speaking, the more a city is run, outside of Las Vegas which is a strong casino market, the harder it is to sell tickets.

While the 2010 Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez heavyweight title fight at the Honda Center got off to a strong start even that wasn't an instant sellout. But most shows at the Honda Center or Staples Center in Los Angeles have in recent years done more in the range of 6,000 to 7,000 tickets over he first week of sales.

With tickets having gone on sale the week before Christmas, less than 5,000 tickets have been sold for the Feb. 23 date and the ticket gross is in the $600,000 range. That's slightly less tickets, and slightly more dollars, than the company's previous major event in the market, the Aug. 4 FOX show, headlined by Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Brandon Vera, at the same point in time.


http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/1/2/...fc-157-tickets

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MMA LEGEND

OHKO

No surprise there.

I wonder if Hendo-Machida was the main event, would there be any difference in ticket sales?

I'm interested to see how Invicta's online PPV sales do.

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TheLyotoLegion

Unfortunate, hopefully things pick up its a great card.


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Toxic

The UFC needs to get into marketing mode, one fighter does not sell a fight and the UFC has rolled out the red carpet for Rousey and done nothing for Liz Carmouche which basically sums up like this. If one fighter in the UFC is well known and he is fighting somebody people know nothing about then they expect a blow out and don't care. They are also giving Carmouche who hasn't had to do all the media tours that Rhonda has an opportunity to kill womens MMA in the UFC before it starts.

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guycanada

The simple answer is no!

Ufc 151, had 3000 tickets sold leading up to the cancellation.

Hendo is a great fighter, but his name alone combined with Jon Jones couldn't bring in the fans to Vegas of all places..

I was a little surprised to hear that the Ufc was going back to Anaheim after the dismal attendance of Ufc on Fox 1

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Cowgirl

Toxic,
Can you please explain to me how Carmouche pulling off the underdog victory would be 'killing woman's MMA before it has a chance to start in the UFC'? I guess I don't understand why Liz Carmouche is catching so much hate, she may not be as pumped up by the media, but she is a solid fighter and I think she will give Ronda a run for her money.

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TheLyotoLegion

I agree, in reality Carmouche winning is the best thing for WMMA.

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Dtwizzy2k5

The title of this thread is completely misleading. If you actually read the article it says that ticket sales are basically selling at a normal pace compared to other events in that venue. The only conclusion is that this card isn't any different from other cards, in either a positive way or a negative way.
The real indicator will be PPV sales. Tickets will always sell and it's not that hard to fill a venue with an established brand like the UFC. PPV, however, has no limit to buys and cannot be "filled up". PPV is also sold at a set price, so it will be interesting to see who will dish out the money to watch this card. I know I won't.

BOOM

I think so, and the card itself could have used another another bigger name fight to beef things up. It's very weak as it stands considering it's a PPV and if one of Hendo or Machida gets injured...

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MMA LEGEND

TheLyotoLegion

I think it'll do well, it's the first time Women fight in the UFC so I think that'll draw some interest, they're doing a primetime to promote it, Ronda can speak and Liz is very easy to promote, I've got it doing similar numbers to Silva/Bonnar.

Hell, if people paid to watch Silva/Bonnar I have no idea why they're complaining about Rousey/Carmouche, Silva/Bonnar was the definition of a lamb being led to the slaughter.

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