Report: Less than 5,000 tickets Sold For UFC 157

"Rowdy" Ronda Rousey

Rousey vs. Carmouche in Box Office Slump

Looks like skeptics may have been right when they said that women's MMA is not yet popular enough to headline a UFC event. UFC 157, headlined by the first ever women's MMA match in the UFC, featuring Ronda Rousey defending her bantamweight title against Liz Carmouche, has reportedly sold much fewer tickets than anticipated since the week before Christmas when they first went on sale.

Even though this is without a doubt a history making event, and submission expert Rousey is an incredibly exciting fighter to watch, many suspected that the hype surrounding Rousey's UFC debut simply could not match up to that of a high profile fight between two male superstars. As of now, the amount of tickets sold for the pay-per-view on February 23 is supporting this theory, as the number of tickets sold for UFC 157 so far is significantly lower than a typical UFC event garners just a few weeks after tickets are released for the public.

According to Dave Meltzer of MMAfighting.com, all the media coverage UFC 157 is receiving is currently not doing a good enough job convincing fans of the importance and overall appeal of  its headlining fight.

"With tickets having gone on sale the week before Christmas, less than 5,000 tickets have been sold for the Feb. 23 date and the ticket gross is in the $600,000 range. ... It's slower early sales than most major UFC pay-per-view shows. There have been several Las Vegas shows that sold at a similar rate early, but that's a unique market because it's run so frequently, and casinos will buy tickets. Every UFC pay-per-view show, no matter what the first week advance is, will do in the $2 million range minimum, and the arena will be nearly full the night of the show."

It is definitely still too early to call UFC 157 a bust. Besides, the co-main event of Lyoto Machida vs. Dan Henderson is ultimately big enough to vanquish this deficit on its own.

However, considering how recognizable of a figure Rousey has become as of late, it is a bit strange to learn that her UFC debut isn't attracting more attention. Maybe it's the fact that the chances of something unpredictable happening (i.e Rousey losing) in this fight are slim to none.

Check out all of our UFC 157 news