Dillashaw (photo) knocked out Soto at UFC 177. Photo: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
2014 has not been a good year for the UFC in terms of sales. pay-per-view in the United States. UFC 177, held on August 30, recorded a low number of packages sold, with just 125 thousand, the second worst number in the organization's nine years.
The staging of UFC 177 went through several problems. Originally, the attraction would feature two title fights, between TJ Dillashaw e Renan Barao among the roosters, and Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso among the flyweights. However, Jon Jones was injured and missed the main fight of UFC 178, forcing the organization to move Johnson x Cariaso to September.
With a weakened card, the event was basically based on the rematch between Barão and Dillashaw. On the day of the weigh-in, the day before the fight, the Brazilian felt ill and was cut from the event, which promoted Joe Soto from the preliminary card to the title fight.
In the last nine years, sales of UFC 177 surpassed only those of UFC 174, held in July this year and which had as its main attraction the duel between Demetrious Johnson and Ali Bagautinov for the flyweight belt. The attraction registered 115 thousand sales.
Until then, the highest number recorded in 2014 was UFC 175, in July, which had Chris Weidman x Lyoto Machida e Ronda Rousey x Alexis Davis as highlights. The event sold 545 thousand packages of pay-per-view. The number was still far from the UFC record, which took place in 2009 with the historic UFC 100. With the participation of two of the most popular fighters in the organization's history, Brock Lesnar e Georges St Pierre, the event won 1,6 million packages.
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