Ronda Rousey sells pay-per-views, y'all.
According to MMAFighting.com's Dave Meltzer, Rousey's Aug. 1 clash against Bethe Correia at UFC 190 topped 900,000 PPV buys, the most for the company since 2013.
This continues a string of strong PPV outings for the UFC, as the promotion has now topped 800,000 buys three times since its year began Jan. 3 with UFC 182: (Jon) Jones vs. (Daniel) Cormier. That show sold 800,000 PPVs, according to MMApayout.com, while July's UFC 189 card featuring Conor McGregor vs. Chad Mendes at the top pulled 825,000 buys.
Even better for the UFC, Dec. 12's UFC 194 card features a long-awaited featherweight title unification bout between McGregor and champion Jose Aldo and a middleweight title fight between champion Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold.
That show, barring injuries, will undoubtedly top the 800,000 mark as well.
For some perspective, the best-selling PPV card of 2014 was July's UFC 175, boasting a 185-pound title matchup between Weidman and Lyoto Machida in the main event and—guess who—Rousey vs. Alexis Davis in the co-main slot. Still, it only topped 545,000 buys.
Going back to 2013 brings us the company's most recent 1 million-buy card. Highlighted again by Weidman in the main event and Rousey in the co-main event, UFC 168 pulled 1.025 million PPV buys.
At that December 2013 show, Weidman took on middleweight legend and longtime UFC champ Anderson "The Spider" Silva for the second time, while Rousey faced her most notable rival, Miesha Tate, also in a rematch.
While Rousey certainly helped UFC 168 and UFC 175, UFC 190 marks her first major triumph as a sole headliner.
Her other UFC main events—at UFC 157 against Liz Carmouche in her promotional debut, at UFC 170 against Sara McMann and at UFC 184 against Cat Zingano—pulled 450,000, 350,000 and 600,000 buys, respectively. While that's not bad, UFC 190's 900,000-plus mark is a clear step above, showing Rousey's continually rising stock over the years.
Even more impressive is the fact that the UFC 190 co-main event wasn't a title fight or even a hotly anticipated matchup at all. In that fight, aging legends Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira squared off, with Rua taking home a decision victory.
That's not the kind of fight that inspires fans to shell out the cash for a PPV, but apparently that doesn't matter when Rousey is at the top.
As we move forward, it will be interesting to see if this was a fluke or the beginning of Rousey's run as a Brock Lesnar or Georges St-Pierre-type PPV star.
My guess is that it's the latter.
