Less than 5,000 tickets sold for upcoming UFC 157 PPV headlined by Ronda Rousey

Quote :

ltimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is making history next month when newly-crowned women's bantamweight titleholder Ronda Rousey puts her strap on the line against Strikeforce import Liz Carmouche in the main event of UFC 157, which emanates from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on Feb. 23, 2013.

And ticket sales for the groundbreaking pay-per-view have yet to match the hype surrounding Rousey's debut.

The "Rowdy" one has taken the mixed martial arts (MMA) world by storm, following her undefeated run through the 135-pound ranks of Strikeforce, which includes six straight first-round submission finishes by way of gruesome armbar, along with mainstream media coverage by ESPN, Jim Rome, TMZ and more.

But according to Dave Meltzer of MMA Fighting, her appeal has yet to equate to box office bucks.

With tickets having gone on sale the week before Christmas, less than 5,000 tickets have been sold for the Feb. 23 date and the ticket gross is in the $600,000 range. ... It's slower early sales than most major UFC pay-per-view shows. There have been several Las Vegas shows that sold at a similar rate early, but that's a unique market because it's run so frequently, and casinos will buy tickets. Every UFC pay-per-view show, no matter what the first week advance is, will do in the $2 million range minimum, and the arena will be nearly full the night of the show.
http://www.mmamania.com/2013/1/3/1827354/less-than-5000-tickets-sold-ufc-157-pay-per-view-ronda-rousey-mma

Seems reasonable.
No way in hell I would pay more than negative 25 cents to watch that PPV.

They really need to add another good match up for this card. Henderson/machida and rousey/carmouche just isnt enough for me to pay for this.

I totally agree...you can't put the first women's UFC title fight as the main title fight of the event and expect it to get the same following as a men's title fight...I mean, no one really knows you yet.

And it's just at an entirely different level of competition that does not interest me any more than the possibility of a good camel toe or nip slip.
I sure as hell wouldn't pay full price for an NBA ticket if I knew the 1st quarter was going to be played by WNBA athletes.

I believe there is a market for WMMA but it has to be developed. Putting dollar expectations on the same level as the men is unrealistic and damaging to the sports development.

I think that you've got to wait for the talent pool to deepen and you have to get her known more. Once people find out that she's a fighter who always brings it and tries to break shit people will be more interested.

stock wrote:

And it's just at an entirely different level of competition that does not interest me any more than the possibility of a good camel toe or nip slip.
I sure as hell wouldn't pay full price for an NBA ticket if I knew the 1st quarter was going to be played by WNBA athletes.

Even worse, it would be the WNBA playing in the fourth quarter in this analogy.

i dont pay to watch fights and i'm half tempted not to watch this one just because of her. i can't stand her now. when she first hit the scene, i thought i was going to cream myself. then i got to see how she acted and talked... now i would rather put a bullet in my ear than listen to her or watch her. i'm kind of hoping the PPV will be a dud. in saying that i would hate to see WMMA get thrown under the bus. there are very talented women out there that can throw down. i just can't take watching rousey have any kind of success

See I sort of started the opposite way. I hadn't seen any of her fights just her interviews and I didn't really like her and was getting sick of her ,but then I watched all of her MMA fights (amateur and professional) in one sitting and now she's one of my favorite fighters.

I guess I am closer to voodoo-jitsu on this one.
I liked her a lot, but she definitely is uber full of herself..... kind of reminds me a lot of how Curano was.

I can't say I dislike her. I only want her to be unsuccessful as I don't want WMMA to be taking up real estate on PPV or Live cards.
Let the UFC put WMMA events as stand alone cards if they are so confident that there are enough people out there that want to watch it.

yea i think the UFC should start them off and probably leave them on the free cards (FOX,FX, and FUEL). I enjoy watching WMMA but i think they need to build a "stable" of women fighters before they start throwing them on PPVs.

None of this realy matters since Carmouche is gonna wreck her any way lol

I just dont think carmouche has the sub defence to stop Rousey BJJ/Judo game though.