UFC 183: The return of Anderson Silva!  Does anything else need to be said about this card?  Frankly I would buy this Pay-Per-View for the main event alone.   However I will stick to one of the ground rules I laid out when starting the ‘Bang for Your Buck‘ series: $25 is the ceiling for any single fight.  Also, 183 features a very solid under-card.  So is it worth $60?  Let’s find out:

Main Event: [#6 MW] Anderson Silva  vs [NR] Nick Diaz

Worth: $20

Why: Besides sticking to my ceiling of $25 per fight, I’ll also try to be objective and say that no matter how excited I am for Anderson’s return, this fight doesn’t quite measure up to Jones vs Cormier – the last and only fight so far that I valuated at the max price.  Silva is 39, has not fought in over a year, has not won in two, and is returning after a crippling injury.  These are the main reasons this fight is interesting: anything less than a spectacular finish for Silva would mean that one of the greatest fighters ever might as well call it a career.

Silva’s opponent Nick Diaz is almost a decade younger – and age is just about the only thing on his side in this bout.  He has not fought in almost two years, has not won in over three, and is a primarily a welterweight who infrequently dabbles in 155 & 185 bouts.  Stylistically, Nick’s plodding forward, volume striking style is perfect fodder fro Silva’s counter-striking.  However Silva’s age, recent injury, and recent performances are begging the question: is Anderson Silva getting too old for this shit?  If he somehow manages to lose to Nick Diaz, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’.

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Good news, fight fans!  This weekend’s UFC on FOX 14, live from Stockholm Sweden, will be broadcast on the Fox network (as if that wasn’t clear from the title…).  That means this event is free – free as in free beer, no PPV cost, no need to estimate the cable prices or Fight Pass subscription rates.  Any US fan with a TV can watch the main card for absolutely no charge.  What’s even better is that UFC tends to stack the Fox cards, so that they are on par with most numbered PPV events (and better than some).   There are even a couple of interesting fights on the prelims, but more on that later.  For now, lets dive right in and try to figure out how much this card would be worth if it were on PPV instead of Fox.

Main Event:  [#3 LHW] Anthony Johnson vs  [#6 LHW] Alexander Gustafsson 

Worth: $20

Why: Who would have ever thought that in 2015,  Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson – the guy who lost to Rich Clementi and Josh Koscheck as a welterweight, and consistently struggled to make weight at 170 and 185 lbs alike – would be fighting in a top contender bout for a crack at Jon Jones’ light heavyweight title?  Of course he would have to get past Alexander Gustafsson first – a tall task against Jones’ toughest opponent to date.  This is an awesome fight, the only thing it’s missing is a title on the line, and that will be up next for the winner.

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My original intent for the ‘Bang for Your Buck’ series was to analyze upcoming UFC PPV events to determine whether the fight card is worth the asking price.  However, even before I was done writing the first installment in this series (UFC 182), it became readily apparent that most events will not meet this threshold.  A part of the reason for this is the ever-increasing PPV prices.   The other part is the also ever-increasing number of UFC events: in addition to the numbered PPV events, UFC holds a plethora of fight cards broadcast on Fox, Fox Sports 1, and Fight Pass network.  Inevitably this leaves some of the cards stretched very thin, especially after the “injury bug” gets through with them.

So is the UFC making it up to the fans for buying the frankly overpriced PPVs by broadcasting free cards on other networks?  Of course, anything that isn’t aired on Fox is not completely free: cards such as the upcoming Fight Night 59 on Fox Sports 1 – a cable network that may require a premium package, depending on your cable/satellite provider.  On the other hand, it’s highly unlikely that you are paying your cable bill exclusively to watch UFC on FS1.  This makes the price point of an event rather difficult to estimate, but I’ll give it a shot anyway:

Dish Network charges me $69.99 per month for a package which includes Fox Sports 1.  After the various fees, taxes, etc., my monthly bill comes out to be near $100.  (My actual bill is quite a bit higher than that but the number of TVs with extra HD receivers, or other premium packages I subscribe to, are really not relevant to this discussion).  So let’s say $100 it is, which averages out to $3.29 per day.  Researchers claim that the average American watches around 5 hours of television a day.  This number seems a bit high to me, and for the sake of making the math easier, let’s say that I spend exactly 3.29 hours per day staring at the TV screen.  This gives us the price point of $1 per hour, or $5 for a 5-hour UFC event on Fox Sports 1.  If you don’t agree with this valuation, feel free to provide a better one in the comments section!  Otherwise, keep reading to find out how FN 59 stacks up compared to this generous (imaginary) price point of $5.

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