UFC 148: The Cementing of a Legacy

UFC 148: Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen II was the most hyped and anticipated fight in the history of the promotion. The pay-per-view buys in the United States have not been released yet, but UFC president Dana White predicts that the numbers will break the UFC 100 record from 2009 which was a reported 1.6 million buys. However in Brazil thus far its been released that 19 million people viewed the fight on television. The "live gate" numbers for the event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas approached $7 million and were by far the highest in MMA history. UFC 148 Preliminaries on FX have also set a new record for UFC prelims on that network with 1.8 million viewers. The Spike TV all-time record for UFC preliminary fights was set last year at UFC 126 with 2 million average viewers.