UFC President Dana White says Saturday night's UFC 91 event will be the most lucrative fight in the history of the sport -- to the tune of 1.2 million pay-per-view buys.
Appearing today on ESPN First Take, White said the main event between heavyweight champion Randy Couture and former WWE star Brock Lesnar is by far the biggest event the sport has ever seen.
"We think it's going to be the biggest pay-per-view draw in UFC history," White said. "We think we're going to do 1.2 million buys on this fight. It's a big fight, the WWE cross-over for this fight, a lot of WWE fans are going to tune in to see if their former wrestling champion can win in a real fight. Vince McMahon might even buy this fight."
UFC 66, which featured a main event fight between Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, is the only MMA event that has ever had more than a million pay-per-view buys, and that one just barely topped the million-buy mark, with 1.05 million. So White thinks Couture-Lesnar is significantly bigger than that.
I think UFC 91 is the biggest sporting event in America this month, but I think White is a little overly optimistic about the total number of pay-per-view buys. The way the economy is tanking right now, I find it hard to believe that more than a million people will manage to shell out $50 to buy this.
But White says it's going to happen, and he says Lesnar is poised to become the sport's biggest superstar.
"We feel he's ready, he feels he's ready, and the betting line feels he's ready," White said of Lesnar. "He's actually the favorite in this fight."
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