The number is short of UFC President Dana White’s 1.2 million purchase figure he stated a few weeks before the event. However, considering the current downturn in the American economy, insiders and analysts seem surprised that the purchase figure remains as high as it is.

As for the ranking of this UFC compared to others, Meltzer wrote:

Based on numbers we’ve gotten, there are places where it was just slightly below UFC 66 (the record setter which did 1,050,000 buys) and it looks to have beaten UFC 61 (Shamrock vs. Ortiz, 775,000) for second place. It looks to be No. 3 in Canada behind UFC 79 (Silva vs. Liddell; St. Pierre vs. Hughes) and UFC 83 (St. Pierre vs. Serra) but ahead of St. Pierre vs. Fitch and Lesnar vs. Herring in August. That would indicate most likely topping 800,000 buys.

The purchase numbers seem to indicate that newly-crowned UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar is a pay-per-view draw. The biggest inference from the numbers, however, is that former or current professional wrestling fans tuned in to see a former professional wrestler compete in a mixed martial arts match.

The figure also helps the other fighters – main card and undercard – who competed that evening. Thanks to the quick knockout and submission finishes, all the scheduled bouts were shown on the pay-per-view broadcast. In this way, all the fighters that evening were able to show their skills to the new MMA fans who purchased the event for the first time. This move could help increase their popularity and name recognition.