According to a piece from the LA Times, UFC 225 sold roughly 150,000 PPV's, if I'm not mistaken. One should reasonably have to assume that the number should be much higher, considering it usually takes around a week or so for the UFC to officially come to an accurate number. Not to mention that, on paper, this would be the best fight card of 2018 so far. For comparison, UFC 224: Nunes vs Pennington topped off at about 70-75K PPV buys. Not something to be proud of if you're the UFC. If this 150K number turns out to be correct or close to it, then the UFC has a serious problem on their hands. Pay-Per-View is always tricky, but the UFC seemingly has had considerable trouble lately in selling PPV's that haven't included either Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, or Ronda Rousey. Why has this problem become so prevalent these last couple years? I have some ideas...

First, $60 was already a lot of money to commit to an event when you can never know if it will be worth the money beforehand. Make that $60 fee occur 9-10 or so times a year and the non die-hards of the sport are going to be very particular about how they spend their money, if at all. Then, to make matters worse, the price increased to $65 per PPV. While an extra $5 obviously may not seem like a lot, it came off as a slap in the face to me. Why would you (UFC) make your biggest events of the year more expensive for me and every other Joe Shmoe out there, just by 5 freakin dollars?! As if $60 wasn't already too much for a Fall/Spring college student with a part-time job, now you want 5 more dollars from me? Respectfully, shove it up your ass, UFC. I can't be the only one who feels this way. I refuse to believe it. Either the UFC is being extra greedy (likely), or the UFC isn't doing as well as Dana White claims it is (even more likely). If the UFC hadn't made a cut from the May-Mac fight way back in August, I wouldn't be shocked to see PPV prices increase to $70-75. 

The price of PPV's is essentially the problem that causes the REAL problem for low buy numbers in my opinion. The real problem, which is pretty obvious, is streaming (illegally). The UFC can spend and market and bump it's gums all day about how great it's upcoming PPV event is, but none of that will ever be enough to reduce the allure of watching an entire event for free on one's own personal computer. They can wonder why the numbers are suffering 'til the cows come home, but $0 will always beat $60, $65, or whatever ridiculous number the UFC charges. Unless some villain comes along and makes this streaming of PPV's impossible, this problem will persist, and the UFC will continue to see poor PPV numbers. And unfortunately, the people who suffer from this first are the fighters, which saddens me. Lucky for the UFC, I believe I have have a very reasonable solution to this issue which I'd like to be compensated for, by the way.

UFC 226 is in less than a month, and it should, emphasis on the should, be a banger. I truly don't see a fight on there I'm not interested in. I, for one, would have no problem buying this card with the homies. Anyway, here is what I propose to the UFC: Charge your stupid $65 for this event and see what the numbers turn out to be. I would assume the UFC would be expecting close to 1,000,000 buys for this card. If the numbers are anywhere close to UFC 225, then there is a real PPV problem in the UFC. Now, UFC 227 is a good card, but top to bottom, it's not 225 or 226. There are two title fights, Swanson v Moicano, and Brunson v Carlos Jr. But after that, the card falls off a cliff, big time. To wrap up my plan, if UFC 226 disappoints PPV-wise, I recommend that the UFC cut the price to $20 for UFC 227. Not only is this still a fair take for the UFC, it is much more conceivable that people will make the switch from streaming, to buying, right? Plus, the people who don't watch because of the $65 or stream it will be much more likely to spend $20 for this event. Besides TJ, DJ, and maybe Cub Swanson, everyone on this card is probably making peanuts anyway, so what is there to lose if you're the UFC? Sacrifice the cost of the PPV a little bit for the sake of doubling or even tripling the volume of buys. Keep your die-hards, and for every one of them hope to attract two more fence-sitters and/or casuals, and boom, you have your $60. If there is truly a PPV problem in the UFC, what do you got to lose here? Plus, it is much more plausible to get a first time and potential future buyer for $20 than $65 as well. If anyone would care to share their opinions on anything I've said so far, I'm open to discussing.

All of this being said, if UFC 226 and 227 both sell like 750K PPV's and all is fine and dandy in UFC Land, then I guess I'll just take my stupid idea and kick rocks, and apologize for wasting everyone's time. However, I'm fairly confident that, if UFC 225 is any indication, I won't be wrong. Please, feel free to comment about this topic and what I've suggested; I'm curious to hear what people think about this.