UFC 61 drew the second-biggest live gate in UFC history on Saturday, July 8th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the number of tickets sold for UFC 61 at the Mandalay Bay was 9,999. In addition, a total of 1,168 free comp tickets that were given away, for a total of 11,167 fans in attendance. The live gate receipts totaled $3,350,775.15.
The highest-grossing UFC event ever at the live gate is UFC 57, which took place on February 4th of this year and generated $3,382,400 in live gate receipts for the third fight between Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture.
UFC 61 is now second on the all-time list at the live gate, ahead of UFC 60 ($2,900,090 for Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie), UFC 52 ($2,575,450 for Liddell vs. Couture II), UFC 54 ($2,336,550 for Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn), and UFC 59 ($2,191,450 for Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin; and Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski).
In terms of overall revenue, pay-per-view estimates are not yet available for UFC 61, but the current record-holder for total revenue is UFC 60, which generated at least $26.87 million in PPV sales and live gate receipts ($2.9 million in live gate receipts; and at least $23.97 million in PPV sales, depending on the final buyrate figures).
