Early UFC 148 PPV buy estimates fall short of bold predictions

It's the million dollar question.

After Chael Sonnen spent the last two years clamoring for a rematch against Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, complete with the media circus that accompanied it, mixed martial arts (MMA) fans are asking, did the pay-per-view (PPV) numbers live up to the hype?

Well, yes and no.

UFC 148: "Silva vs. Sonnen 2" did break a handful of promotion records, including a $6.5 million gate, over a million dollars higher than Nevada's previous record for the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the 2006 rematch between Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz.

But it failed to do "UFC 100" numbers, estimated at 1.6 million, which promotion president Dana White was expecting from his most recent PPV fight card, held during International Fight Week and in conjunction with the UFC Fan Expo in "Sin City."

Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer has more, after the jump:

The show broke a number of UFC records, but not the big one. Early estimates have the show doing 1 million buys on PPV, which would put it in the same range as the Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez fight on October 21, 2010, and be the largest UFC number since that time. That’s a very early number and could vary greatly, as noted by the Mania numbers. But it handily beat Mania numbers as that show is estimated at 670,000 in North America.

Silva was able to retain his 185-pound title after stopping Sonnen in the second round (via technical knockout) amidst a sea of controversy. The challenger, who failed to capture gold for the second time against "The Spider," has rejected the idea of foul play and will not ask for a rematch.

Considering what Chris Weidman was able to do in San Jose, I doubt he would have gotten one anyway.

To see what happened at the UFC 148 PPV, be sure to check out our complete event wrap up and link dump, featuring every angle you could possible explore, plus a whole lot more, by clicking here.