Francis Ngannou (11 Wins 1 Loss) is firmly knocking on the door of the UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic (17 Wins 2 Losses).
In fact, he’s pretty much ripped the door off its hinges and knocked the coffee out of his opponent’s hand, if his stunning 1 minute 42 second knockout of heavyweight veteran Alistair Overeem (43 Wins, 16 Losses and 1 No Contest) is anything to go by.
The two will collide this Saturday in the main event of UFC 220, the first pay-per-view event, in Boston, Massachusetts to decide who is the baddest man on the planet.
This, along with the co-main event of UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier (19 Wins, 1 Loss and 1 No Contest) defending his title against the first ever Swiss UFC fighter, Volkan Oezdemir (15 Wins, 1 Loss), should be a huge night for President Dana White and Owners WME-IMG.
However, if last year’s numbers are anything to go by, the company shouldn’t get their hopes up too much.
In 2017, only one PPV (UFC 217 at Madison Square Garden) reaches one million buys (and even then you have to factor in Internet Pay-Per-View buys and those outside of North America).
The year before, the UFC had 13 pay-per-view events that did an estimated 8.21 million buys, or an average of 632,000 per show. In 2017, the UFC produced 12 pay-per-view shows that did an estimated 3.71 million buys, or an average of 309,000 buys per show — a 55-percent decline in total buys and a 51-percent decline in the average per show.
When you compare this to the three biggest selling UFC PPV events, UFC 196 (1.5 million buys), UFC 100 (1.6 million buys) and UFC 202 (1.65 million buys), there’s a distinct lack of something.
That something is star power.
The aforementioned events featured cult personalities such as former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, Lightweight veteran Nate Diaz and Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor.
The aforementioned events featured cult personalities such as former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, Lightweight veteran Nate Diaz and Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor.
These characters got fans to part with their money, which is hard to do in 2017.
The UFC have lost almost all their stars in the last two years, with former Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey (12 Wins 2 Losses) leaving the sport after her 48 second loss to Amanda Nunes (15 Wins 4 Losses) at UFC 207, Brock Lesnar retiring for the second time after failing a drug test for the anti-estrogen drugs clomiphene and hydroxy-clomiphene and Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor taking time off after his super fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Whilst it looks like McGregor will come back at some point this year, there doesn’t seem to be any other stars at the UFC’s disposal.
It’s not like they haven’t had opportunities to promote others fighters though, as the brass decided to ignore UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes’ (15 Wins 4 Losses) story of being the first-ever openly gay UFC Champion and went ahead with heavily promoting Rousey’s return to the Octagon back in December 2016.
Even after Rousey lost in deveasting fashion, those in Las Vegas didn’t go with the story of Nunes and turn her into a new star.
A similar thing can be seen with the lack of promotion around undefeated Lightweight fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov (25 Wins) who has a massive following in Russia and across Eastern Europe.
Now, with three pay-per-views announced so far this year, the UFC will no doubt be hoping that Ngannou takes the belt off Miocic in stunning fashion so they can build him up as a rags to riches Heavyweight champion.
However, if their track record is anything to go by, nothing is for certain.
Francis Ngannou looks to become UFC Heavyweight Champion this Saturday at UFC 220.
