The Promotion, Showtime, Hasn’t Confirmed On The Event’s PPV Buys

The biggest fight in combat sports history has reportedly broke the pay-per-view record, this according to UFC President Dana White. If this holds true, it would surpass the record set by what was called the “Fight of the Century”, the 2015 Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight.

That would put the overall TV revenue generated for the fight somewhere between $602,665,000 –  the number if every buy purchased a standard-definition broadcast at $89.95, which isn’t likely – and $669,665,000 if everyone paid the $99.95 for the high-definition feed.

“We broke the record in Australia,” White told The Wall Street Journal. “We broke the record in the U.K. at 4 in the morning, broke the record in Spain, Canada and the United States.”

Just one week after the event, White stated that the event had done 6.5 million PPV buys.  That number would be tough to be accurate so soon after the event, so it’s possible that another 200,000 PPV buys turned up in the past two months since the fight.

The broadcaster of the August 26th event that took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Showtime Networks, has not yet confirmed the total number of PPV buys. The premium cable network’s executive vice president and general manager, Stephen Espinoza, had previously stated that the fight drew around 4.5 million buys. There is a possibility of a 10-15 percent bump for the final numbers. Showtime hasn’t commented since White’s claims of 6.7 million PPV buys.

White did speak about all the different ways that people watched the fight, including, people streaming it illegally.

“(It was the) most pirated fight of all time,” White said. “(On) social media, it was the most talked about (event). It was the highest bet fight ever in the history of Las Vegas. Highest bet sporting event. Bigger than the Super Bowl.”

Call the fight what you want, a “Freakshow”, “Spectacle” “The Greatest Fight Ever”….  The bottom line, it was one of the most hyped events ever. Everybody was talking about it, whether they were laughing at the event or could not wait for the fight. It started as two fighters attacking each other on social media and ended with both warriors swinging at one another in a ring looking for the finish. Though McGregor did much better than many thought he would, Mayweather got his hand raised that night with a TKO in the 10th round. But both men went home with big paydays.