The UFC’s popularity in Brazil is extremely high, but their next event doesn’t seem to have much heat at the box office yet. According to the guru of numbers when it comes to the UFC, Dave Meltzer, tickets are moving pretty slowly for the UFC on FX 7 event in Sao Paulo, Brazil on January 19th. He explains in the Wrestling Observer (subscription required):
We don’t have a number for 1/19 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but it’s not close to sold out nor very big. That surprises me since it’s the first time UFC has been in that city, and even though it’s a weak card (Michael Bisping vs. Vitor Belfort on top with nothing else star power wise on the show other than Daniel Sarafian who came off TUF Brazil), I’d have thought first time in Sao Paulo would be an immediate sellout. The 11,000-seat arena is less than half sold with less than two weeks to go.
I’m pretty surprised at this as well. Sao Paulo is huge, and they’re running a small building. It shouldn’t be hard to sell 11,000 tickets with Vitor Belfort on top. Meltzer’s right that there isn’t a ton of starpower, but UFC 147 was basically a TUF Brazil Finale with Wanderlei Silva in a featured bout and they still sold over 16,000 tickets in Belo Horizonte. It could have something to do with the UFC’s injury bug – no one wants to run out and buy tickets until they know for sure who is actually going to fight – but it’s still a bit curious nonetheless.