One has to admit that the year of 2008 has been very good to the UFC. Amid all the chaos of EliteXC debuting on CBS, Affliction signing former UFC champions and Fedor, and the resignation of Randy Couture the UFC has prospered. So much in fact that they are poised to surpass their PPV #'s from 2006, a record high for the company. Let's take a look at the numbers:

2006-5.2 Million PPV Buys

2007-4.8 Million PPV Buys

2008-5.3 Million PPV Buys

The numbers for 2006 and 2007 were gathered via estimates from around the industry as the actual numbers are never released. The numbers for 2008 are estimates as well...with an estimate of 400K PPV buys for UFC 90, 800K PPV buys for UFC 91, and 550K for UFC 92. I'm pretty sure that those numbers will be a bit higher and will probably end up somewhere around 5.5 million PPV buys for the year. The UFC is driven by PPV buys for the most part, and to achieve this kind of success with all of the speed bumps in the road is impressive.

There are a host of mega-fights lined up in the coming months, and with Brock Lesnar as the new HW champion the UFC can go nowhere but up. Below is a list of mega-fights that we could be fortunate enough to see in 2009:

• Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn(signed for UFC 94)


• Chuck Liddell vs. Anderson Silva(Rumored for UFC 95)


• Brock Lesnar vs. Anybody In The HW Division(2-3 fights)


• Anderson Silva vs. Randy Couture


• Georges St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva


• Forrest Griffin vs. Rampage II


• Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

That's like ten fights that could do tremendous numbers provided they are all held in the United States. As of now, the Liddell vs. Silva fight is rumored for a card that will be held over seas. It's not too far fetched to think that the UFC could surpass the 6 million PPV buys mark in 2009. Of course that is dependant on a couple of things like the economy, and Brock Lesnar remaining the HW champion. Again, it's a great time to be a MMA fan.