I saw this list of PPV in 2008 this morning on PW Insider–it really magnifies the problems WWE is having with its PPV numbers. Check out the list:

Top 10 North American PPV buy rates, 2008

1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6, 1,250,000
2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15, 1,010,000
3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul “Big Show” Wight, March 30, 670,000
4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9, 625,000
5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2, 600,000
6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5, 540,000
7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000
8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000
9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000
10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000

Those are just insane numbers for the UFC right now. There’s a several different things that stand out on this list.

The first is that Brock Lesnar is paying off big for the UFC. All three of his fights propelled those UFC cards into the top five this year. He’s the perfect crossover star. It’s amazing that his fights outsold huge UFC bouts like Jackson/Griffin, St. Pierre/Serra, Liddell/Evans and Penn/Sherk, especially considering some of those were serious grudge matches.

The second thing that stands out is obviously that only one WWE PPV made it in to the top 10. If this isn’t evidence that the WWE puts on too many PPVs every year, I don’t know what is.

Finally, what’s really amazing about this is that a BOXING PPV came in at number one. I guess it just goes to show you that Oscar De La Hoya has some serious drawing power in the Hispanic community, despite the fact that he has no chance at pulling off a win over a big name fighter. As long as he draws those kind of numbers, they’ll keep doing PPV fights featuring him.

According to the Sun, Anderson Sliva wants Roy Jones Jr. in the Boxing ring:

Ed Soares, Silva’s manager, said: “Anderson would really love to fight Roy Jones Jr in a boxing match.

“It’s not just talk, we really would like to put that fight together.

“We respect Jones’ boxing ability and think he’s one of the best but we’re tired of different boxers saying that MMA fighters aren’t technical.

“Anderson would love to fight Roy Jones in a boxing match under boxing rules to prove that MMA fighters are technical too.

The paper notes that Dana White would probably never let the fight take place unless it was sanctioned by the UFC. I say, why not let it happen? Any publicity is good publicity. The only down side to this would be that Anderson Silva wouldn’t fight in an MMA match for several months.

My question is this: why challenge Roy Jones? Why not challenge someone in their prime?