UFC 166 draws reported 17,238 attendance for $2.5 million live gate

HOUSTON – Saturday night’s UFC 166 event drew an announced attendance of 17,238 and a live gate of $2.5 million.

UFC President Dana White announced the figures at the night’s post-event news conference, which MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) attended.

UFC 166 took place at Toyota Center in Houston and featured a heavyweight title fight between champion Cain Velasquez and former champ Junior Dos Santos in the pay-per-view headliner. In their trilogy fight, Velasquez again was dominant against “JDS,” this time stopping him with a fifth-round TKO. At UFC 155 this past December, Velasquez took the belt back with a five-round unanimous decision.

UFC 166 marked the UFC’s first event in Houston since 2011's UFC 136, at which then-lightweight champion Frankie Edgar stopped Gray Maynard in the fourth round and featherweight titleholder Jose Aldo took a unanimous decision from Kenny Florian. That event drew 16,164 people for a gate of $2.23 million. The UFC’s first trip to Houston, the fourth-largest city in the country, was UFC 69, which had an attendance of 15,629 for a gate of more than $2.8 million.

According to White, the UFC 166 live gate total is the third highest in Toyota Center history, falling behind UFC 69 and a Rolling Stones concert. UFC 136 is in fifth place on that list, with a Madonna concert in the No. 4 position.

While the number of “comp” or free tickets was not revealed, the figures represent an average revenue of $145.03 per ticket issued.

For complete coverage of UFC 166, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.