The Weekly Wrap: March 28 - April 3

Rampage = 350K buys

The pay-per-view buy rate for UFC 96 on March 7th gives the best indication to date of the singular drawing power of Quinton Jackson, who headlined the event against Keith Jardine. The show drew about 350,000 buys, according to The Wrestling Observer. Unlike most of his other UFC bouts, Jackson's fight against Jardine positioned him as the main draw on an entire card, which was low on star power. The UFC sought to match Rashad Evans with Jackson on the show, but the fight would have come too soon after Evans’ title victory over Forrest Griffin in December.

The number is solid but not on the level of the very top UFC draws. The show did just slightly more than the estimated 320,000 buys for UFC 93 in January, a show from Ireland that broadcast live in an awkward afternoon time slot and was headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson. Other recent UFC shows -- UFC 91, 92 and 94 -- all hovered around or exceeded 1 million buys. Jackson still did better in his pay-per-view numbers than another top fighter, Anderson Silva, whose UFC 90 main event against Patrick Cote only drew about 300,000 buys, according to The Wrestling Observer.