UFC 145 early pay-per-view estimates over 700,000 buys, highest buyrate for Jon Jones ever

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

With Brock Lesnar retired and Georges St-Pierre on the shelf, the UFC has been in need of a new pay-per-view star. UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones has been coming into his own in that role, posting the highest buyrates outside of those two names over the last year, but he hadn't had a truly breakout number for the organization to date.

That's changed now, as Dave Meltzer reports in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer that early estimates for UFC 145's buyrate are in over 700,000 buys.

The feud with Rashad Evans, along with Evans' history of pay-per-view success, both contributed to Jones' highest buyrate ever, but it's still a very good sign for the UFC after a very rough stretch of buyrates through the end of 2011.

Penick's Analysis: Jones' impressive run inside the Octagon continues to drive people to watch his fights, regardless of what they think about him outside of the cage. His fight with Dan Henderson should drive a lot of interest as well later this summer, and it will be very intriguing to see what type of number he can do in follow up to this definitely impressive number. This is now the benchmark for the big events still to come this summer, especially UFC 148 on July 7 in Las Vegas.

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