Early UFC 149 pay-per-view buyrate estimate, Prelim card ratings

How well did Faber vs. Barao draw?

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According to WrestlingObserver.com's Dave Meltzer, UFC 149, headlined by Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao for the interim bantamweight championship, drew about 235,000 pay-per-view buys, based on preliminary numbers and estimations. 

Given how injury plagued this card was, this has to be considered a mild success, although the original headliner of Jose Aldo vs. Erik Koch probably would have drawn less (Urijah Faber is a much bigger name). 

Via WrestlingObserver.com's Dave Meltzer:

The earliest PPV estimates are 235,000 buys, which is along the lines of what would be expected. Once again, keep in mind this is early and we should have a better number in a couple of weeks. It's a low number, but nobody expected different going in. It was probably helped because whenever UFC runs in Canada, they get so much mainstream media in that country that the PPV numbers do well in that country and make a difference if the U.S. numbers are so-so.

A PPV being from Canada doesn't hurt the U.S. numbers. Normally, that would be considered a disappointment, but coming two weeks after a monster show and being the third PPV in four weeks, if that's where it winds up, nobody should complain. I think it's a lot better than Aldo vs. Koch would have done.

UFC 149's estimates are actually higher than UFC 147 a month ago, which drew roughly 175,000 buys. Of course, both 147 and 149 pale in comparison to 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II, which drew about 950,000 buys domestically on July 7, according to WrestlingObserver.com. 

--The UFC prelims on FX ratings are down from UFC 148's a few weeks back. The UFC 149 prelims drew about 1 million viewers, while 148 prelims did about 1.8 million--tying the all-time UFC prelims record set in February 2011.

Check out our interview w/ UFC 149 co-headliner Hector Lombard: