Current early estimates for Saturday's
UFC 203 have it doing in the range of 425,000-475,000 buys. While not monster numbers, that would be the UFC's best pay-per-view numbers so far this year for a show not headlined by
Conor McGregor, or
UFC 200.
One would have figured a show headlined by
Stipe Miocic vs. Alistair Overeem for the heavyweight title to do around 250,000-300,000 buys. That's based on
UFC 198, where
Miocic challenged
Fabricio Werdum for the title, with a far stronger undercard, which is estimated at doing just under 300,000 buys.
In other words, Punk probably brought in anywhere from 125,000-225,000 extra buys, meaning he generated added revenue of somewhere between $3.75 million and $6.75 million for the company. So for all the criticism of the $500,000 base pay Punk earned for his debut, along with a possible percentage of pay-per-view that was Punk's deal ended up being a financial bargain.