The Wrestling Observer(subscription required) via MMAPayout, reports that UFC 113 did a little over 500K PPV buys. Which is on the lower end of the prediction spectrum, as the event very well could have done more when the final tally is complete.
Early reports on UFC 113 on 5/8 in Montreal have the show doing 520,000 buys, slightly above the 450,000 that the first Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua fight did. We should note that there were cable reports as high as 687,000 for the show, and trending patterns were only slightly behind GSP vs. Dan Hardy and the highest besides that show since August, which would also indicate something closer to the latter than the former. There are a lot of other measures that also indicate the higher number, but as far as the number of buys from people who would have the numbers and that can be confirmed, the lower number is the best number we've got.
Now would 520K PPV buys for this event be a disppointment? I would have to say NO and here's why:
-Neither Machida nor Shogun have historically been huge PPV draws
-The co-main event wasn't very strong either(The two UFC PPV's Daley fought on is UFC 103 and 108 were not strong at all in regards to PPV's)...Koscheck draws a reaction from the crowd...but he's not a legit PPV draw yet.
-There was no UFC Prelim lead in
-Kimbo Slice wasn't heavily promoted...he actually was promoted as just another fighter leading up to this event...and not a 'star' so to speak
-The event itself wasn't full of 'name' stars. There were some good fights on paper, but not a lot of name value unless you were a Canadian(lots of Canadian fighters since it was in Canada).
The thing to take away from the event was that the event surpassed the UFC 104 numbers that featured Machida vs. Shogun 1. Also, the fact that Shogun won emphatically, and had the whole crowd behind him and that leads me to believe that he can become a legitimate PPV draw in the future if he keeps fighting like the Shogun of old.
So UFC 113 should be deemed a success.
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