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Anderson Silva - essentially by himself - outdrew the last two Brazil pay-per-views combined for his bout against Stephan Bonnar at UFC 153. Are you surprised by that given the thrown together nature of UFC 153? Why or why not?
JASON AMADI, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
UFC 153 was fun, but it wasn't any more loaded than the first UFC Rio show last year. I think UFC 134 would have done a stronger buyrate if not for the hurricane last year that devastated the east coast. It likely wouldn't have crushed the 153 number, but I think it would have been in the same ballpark.
The second UFC Rio show was pretty much designed to fail. It was 2 weeks after the Brock Lesnar-Alistair Overeem pay-per-view, which was about two weeks after the Jon Jones-Lyoto Machida show. They were burning out their pay-per-view audience and threw together a pretty weak card headlined by Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes.
The fact that the most successful fighter in UFC history can outperform Jose Aldo on pay-per-view really (even with a less than stellar opponent and a bland undercard) shouldn't surprise anyone.
BRAD WALKER, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
Anderson Silva drawing big numbers should surprise nobody, if the entire fight card was footage of him warming up instead of other fights it would still outsell half of the other cards the UFC puts together. The man is an absolute genius inside of the cage and can do things that would be impossible for any other man. Watchin g Silva fight is like seeing poetry in motion mixed with some insane level of knowledge of anatomy and mathematics. He's a once in a lifetime talent that will continue to draw as long as he chooses to fight regardless of who is across the cage.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
No, I'm not surprised. Anytime Silva fights, it's a big deal. You get a chance to watch the greatest ever, and there's always that chance that Silva loses somehow, which would be historic. People will pay to see Silva fight, even against an outmatched opponent.
ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
I am not surprised at all that Silva was a larger draw than the last two Brazil cards. He is 37, is at the end of his career and is also the greatest fighter that has ever put on gloves. Both of these facts make it easy to understand why he can sell a PPV by himself. It will be interesting see how the UFC deals with his retirement in the future and what that will mean for the future of PPVs.
DAN MOORE, MMATORCH UK CONTRIBUTOR
I'm not surprised at all and I actually think the UFC did a very good job of marketing UFC 153. No one was buying into Stephan Bonnar being a legitimate contender and the UFC never tried to insult anyone's intelligence selling it that way. If you missed the event you were likely to miss something special and as it turned out, that's exactly what happened.
Add in the other mismatches of the night involving Big Nog and Glover Teixeira, and some exciting finishes were pretty much guaranteed. I just hope the UFC don't try and recreate a similar card too soon, because success in terms of revenue probably won't be as high and they should leave it as a one off. As for Anderson Silva; if he does indeed fight GSP next, the PPV numbers for that event should go through the roof.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/roundtables/article_14784.shtml
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