Pay-Per-View Is King For UFC Fights, But I’m Happy With YouTube

By Andrew Meyer on July 7, 2008

Pay-per-view aka PPV is king in the world of fighting. This is where companies like WWE, HBO and Showtime bring in a large portion of their revenues.

In May 2007, the Oscar De La Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight on HBO PPV not only became the biggest selling non-heavyweight title fight of all time, but the biggest of all time period, with 2.5 million buyers. The fight itself generated roughly $134.4 million dollars in domestic PPV revenue, making it the richest prizefight of all time. (Wikipedia)

And, guess what? HBO doesn't sale the most PPVs. UFC is the current king of PPV sales.

In 2007, UFC officially took over as the "king of pay-per-view". Of the 15 biggest PPV events of 2007 in North America, UFC had eight, four for boxing and three for World Wrestling Entertainment. (Wikipedia)

ufc 86 I've never bought a PPV fight of any kind (MMA, boxing, WWE, etc). Instead, I watch big fights on video sites like YouTube hours or days after the fights happen.

For instance, Saturday night was the big UFC 86 fight between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Forrest Griffin. I got home after UFC 86 finished and immediately started scouring video sites for a full version of the fight (see my Twitter).

I found a full version of the fight pretty fast.

Sorry, UFC.