UFC 132 pay per view buys estimated at 350,000-375,000 for 'Cruz vs Faber 2' on July 2

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UFC 132: "Cruz vs. Faber 2" went down this past Saturday, July 2, 2011, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Headlined by the first bantamweight title fight in promotion history, between champion Dominick Cruz and challenger Urijah Faber, the show wasn't expected to do big business at the box office.
But it might not be so bad after all. From the Wrestling Observer (subscription required):

Very early PPV numbers look to be in the 350,000 to 375,000 range. The number is lower than I would have expected. We won't have what I'd call a definitive number for another week or two, but that's a prelim number. The Countdown show was excellent, as Cruz and Faber should both get A+ ratings for their selling of the fight. Even though the first airing on a Wednesday afternoon did no viewers, it did normal debut-level numbers for the replay since it was right after Impact. The show looks to have been about 15% up from UFC 131 in the U.S., but was down in Canada (since 131 was from Vancouver, it was going to have more of a Canadian following.

It should always be noted that these are early estimates and don't necessarily reflect an exact number of pay-per-view buys for the event.
That said, it's a decent enough measuring stick and despite Dave Meltzer thinking the number is lower than expected, it would seem 350,000 buys is a success for a card headlined by two unproven draws in the UFC, especially when considering it outperformed both UFC 130 and UFC 131.
Here's a look at how "Cruz vs. Faber 2" stacks up to the rest of the years pay-per-view offerings from the world's largest fight promotion:

UFC 132: "Cruz vs. Faber 2" -- 350,000
UFC 131: "Dos Santos vs. Carwin" -- 335,000
UFC 130: "Rampage vs. Hamill" -- 325,000
UFC 129: "St. Pierre vs. Shields" -- 800,000
UFC 128: "Shogun vs. Jones" -- 445,000
UFC 127: "Penn vs. Fitch" -- 260,000
UFC 126: "Silva vs. Belfort" -- 725,000
UFC 125: "Edgar vs. Maynard 2" -- 270,000

As you can see, it's hard not to deem the number a success when considering it did better than other events headlined by far more established stars.
Of course, Wanderlei Silva vs. Chris Leben and the return of Tito Ortiz (who was fighting for his job) most certainly helped things along, as did the holiday weekend.
But a buyrate like that goes a long way in helping establish young budding stars like Dominick Cruz, who retained his title in a five-round war against Urijah Faber.
If and when the two bantamweight battlers climb back inside the Octagon, it looks as though they can draw a respectable number, something that goes a long way in helping solidify the 135-pound division.
by Geno Mrosko