UFC 91 (Lesnar/Couture) Attendance & Gate Figures Revealed

UFC president Dana White anticipated that Saturday night's UFC 91 event would be the biggest card in MMA history. Unfortunately, the early numbers are not exactly where he had hoped, however they were still solid. 14,272 fans packed into a near-sold out MGM Grand Garden Hotel and Casino to watch Randy Couture lose his UFC heavyweight title to Brock Lesnar. FightLine.com is reporting that the event garnered $4.8 Million at the gate.

White revealed the official numbers at Saturday night's UFC 91 post-fight press conference. Although UFC 91 fell short of White's lofty expectations, it was still the UFC's fourth highest gate in the company's 15 year history, it was its third highest for a UFC event in the state of Nevada.

"UFC 66: Liddel vs. Ortiz II," which was also held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 2006, remains the company's record holder. "UFC 79: Nemesis," which took place last New Year's Eve at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, remains in second.

Certainly the current state of the US economy played a significant factor in the organization's inability to sellout the event. The UFC tried to make up that loss by slightly increasing the ticket prices for this monumental event.

White had also predicting that Saturday night's event would earn 1.2 million Pay-Per-View buys, which would shatter UFC 66's previous record of 1,050,000. FightLine.com reports that those numbers should be released within the week.