Underrated stat: Lyoto Machida sold total of 5 million PPVs for the UFC

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gosuasus said:

Underrated stat: Lyoto Machida sold total of 5 million PPVs for the UFC​

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i will say that 9 main or co-main event PPV slots is impressive.
But to try to claim that Machida is the one that sold these is absurd. the highest of these, UFC 94, was headlined by GSP vs. BJ Penn II.
UFC 98 i'll give you as he was the title challenger, although it's arguable if he was the A- or B- side of that draw. Then two fights with Shogun, which he was DEFINITELY the B- side of, especially the rematch. In fact, the only two fights on this list that i'd say he was surely the A-side were Thiago Silva (at the aforementioned 94) and Phil Davis (UFC 163, the lowest draw on here).
i respect what he accomplished, but let's not act like he was printing money for the UFC.
 
gosuasus said:
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Machida often gets overlooked in terms of star power because of short lived “Machida era”, but he used to be a larger draw than any of the current champions and Instagram divas who can't even crack half a milly.

That 2007-2011 era (post-Liddell / pre-Jones LHW division) defined by the great rivalries used to sell a ton for the UFC with Rampage, Griffin, Evans, Machida, Shogun at the forefront.

<{JustBleed}>
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all those karate practitioners paying to see it?
 
twiztor said:
i will say that 9 main or co-main event PPV slots is impressive.
But to try to claim that Machida is the one that sold these is absurd. the highest of these, UFC 94, was headlined by GSP vs. BJ Penn II.
UFC 98 i'll give you as he was the title challenger, although it's arguable if he was the A- or B- side of that draw. Then two fights with Shogun, which he was DEFINITELY the B- side of, especially the rematch. In fact, the only two fights on this list that i'd say he was surely the A-side were Thiago Silva (at the aforementioned 94) and Phil Davis (UFC 163, the lowest draw on here).
i respect what he accomplished, but let's not act like he was printing money for the UFC.
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If he wasn't a draw they wouldn't have put him in so many main events. He absolutely was the draw for UFC 98...the entire selling point was seeing an undefeated karate guy fight an undefeated wrestler.

Drawing is not zero-sum either. It's not "he's the A side, so he drew it all".
 
Doctor Grudge said:
If he wasn't a draw they wouldn't have put him in so many main events. He absolutely was the draw for UFC 98...the entire selling point was seeing an undefeated karate guy fight an undefeated wrestler.
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He was a draw for casuals and hardcore alike at my old work back then. All the guys in my department (casuals and super casuals) were Anderson Silva and Machida fans. He also brought in a lot of traditional martial arts dads who didn't really watch MMA but took karate classes and watched Karate Kid. WonderBoy could have had the same effect if he was a bit better and got the belt.
 
Doctor Grudge said:
There was a revolving door of 205 champions around Machida's time. That meant the UFC had a lot of credible people to put in the main event.

Machida was always a credible opponent, so it was easy to put him in title shots even off of short win streaks, which means a lot of PPVs.
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Credible like when he won a robbery against Shogun for the belt?
 
whooty said:
Loved that era of LHW, and then Jones beat them all like they didn't even belong in the cage with him. Insane looking back.
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You're right but JONES was so much bigger than they allllll were-----weight classes exist for a reason. He made weight so it was legal but he was much much larger.
 
All due respect to Machida, who was a great fighter and champion...but we also need to give credit to the opponents too.

I'm pretty sure the likes of Jones, Shogun, Rampage, etc. contributed to those numbers...and when we look at the cards where he was co-main, obviously we need to consider the main event.

The top drawing fight on the whole list was UFC 94, headlined by GSP-Penn...Machida did not sell those PPVs as evidenced by the drop-off for the next-highest fight...and UFC 157 was headlined by Ronda in her UFC debut.

Again...all respect to Machida, but thread title is a bit over-the-top.
 
Since UFC 98 I've never missed a numbered event since.

Seeing Machida dispatch Rashad Evans to become the Middleweight champ was the first event I ever watched live, at the time I thought it was one of the greatest things I have ever seen, and to this day it's still up there along with his knockout of Couture and Belfort.
 
whooty said:
Loved that era of LHW, and then Jones beat them all like they didn't even belong in the cage with him. Insane looking back.
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Hell, Machida was the first one to make Jones look human during that run.
 
It wasn't him but his opponents. Just look at the UFC 163 sales when he fought Davis, his less popular opponent.
 
Prime Machida was probably tied with Anderson as the best of all time. Honestly, people forget how good he actually was. Id literally give him a good chance vs Fedor let alone any MW or LHW at that time.
 
whooty said:
Loved that era of LHW, and then Jones beat them all like they didn't even belong in the cage with him. Insane looking back.
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After what Jones did to Shogun the rest didn't shock me tbh, he won every second of that fight I reckon, Shogun couldn't do a thing.
 
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