Liddell vs. Ortiz III PPV Buys Bring Dismal Numbers

Building off of a previous report, last weekend’s Liddell vs. Ortiz III has brought in some dismal numbers.

According to MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer, multiple sources have confirmed that Golden Boy MMA’s debut show brought a paltry 40,000 buys on traditional television pay-per-view. While that number doesn’t include streaming services, that is not expected to boost the overall number significantly.

The 43-year-old Ortiz knocked the 48-year-old Liddell out in the first round of their laughable match-up. Ortiz had spent much of the buildup to the fight predicting it would do 200,000 buys. De La Hoya took that egregious estimate a step further and predicted between 200,000 and 400,000 buys.

But Meltzer said that PPV estimates before the fight from those in the industry said interest was ‘ice cold.’ Initial reports from The Los Angeles Times and Yahoo estimated the fight brought between 25,000 and 30,000 buys, slightly below the 40,000 mark of today. That comes after the price of the fight was lowered to $40 during a week of poor sales. People were interested in seeing the fight, just not paying for it.

For what it’s worth, the fight did 500,000 Google searches, commensurate with a UFC pay-per-view of between 170,000-240,000 buys.

It was the kind of bout involving aging UFC stars that Bellator has parlayed into big television ratings. Liddell vs. Ortiz III most likely would have done the same. Yet people simply weren’t lining up to pay for a fight like this in an era when really only the UFC can muster any success on pay-per-view. Their numbers for shows outside of only the biggest cards have dwindled recently as well.