UFC 103 appears to have lost the PPV battle

For all the talk of how much different MMA and boxing are, the head-to-head pay-per view match-up between Mayweather vs. Marquez and UFC 103 had many partisans licking their chops for the chance to cut down the rival sport.

So who won this latest skirmish in the boxing vs. mixed martial arts debate?

As of this moment PPV estimates for UFC 103 are around the 400,000-600,000 375,000 buy range. A solid showing for a card that featured no title fights and none of the UFC's big pay-per view draws. However, there is the potential that UFC 103  may have achieved only 25% of what Mayweather vs. Marquez did on pay-per view last Saturday night.

Kevin Iole reported that Mayeather vs. Marquez will definitely reach 1 million buys and as of this moment there is the possibility that the total number will reach 1.6 million buys. That puts Mayweather vs. Marquez a hundred thousand buys short of the UFC's most successful PPV card, UFC 100.

Of course there is a degree of gamesmanship with the initial reports. Promoters tend leak higher numbers than what ends up being the final count (the UFC does this too) in order to shape media coverage in their favor. Nothing is official yet but you can be sure of one thing, Dana White has been mute on UFC 103 vs. Mayweather-Marquez since Saturday night. If 103 had beaten, tied or  narrowly lost to Mayweather-Marquez, you could be damn sure Dana White would be running his mouth. Then again, White has bigger things to worry about now. Like making fun of Herschel Walker.

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