Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce (Matt Erickson/HeavyMMA)
Event featured interim welterweight title fight
UFC 143 officially drew 9,005 fans for a live gate of $2,389,975 earlier this month at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The Nevada State Athletic Commission on Monday released the numbers to HeavyMMA.
The Feb. 4 card featured an interim welterweight title fight between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit. The latter walked away with the belt after earning a mildly controversial unanimous decision win that prompted Diaz to say he was done with the sport, clearly upset with the outcome.
The original attendance estimate from the UFC immediately following the event was for 10,040 fans. The original gate estimate was $2.3 million. The numbers reflect 6,727 tickets sold, with 2,288 tickets being released as comps. A total of 751 tickets were unsold, the NSAC said. The attendance and gate represents an average price of $265.40 per ticket.
Along with the welterweight tilt, the card featured a heavyweight co-main event between “Ultimate Fighter” winner Roy Nelson and former Strikeforce contender Fabricio Werdum, who returned to the promotion after a lengthy absence.
The other notable contest on the card, which garnered quite a bit of steam due to the trash talking of one of the competitors, featured Josh Koscheck and Mike Pierce. Pierce called Koscheck out to make the fight come to fruition and followed that up with some very entertaining pre-fight banter. Although the crowd was behind him, Pierce was unable to defeat Koscheck, who earned the narrow split decision win.
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UFC 143 Official Numbers: Attendance of 9,005, Gate of $2.39 Million