UFC 257: Poirier vs. McGregor 2 was one of the UFC’s highest ever selling pay-per-views

At UFC 257 this past weekend Conor McGregor made his return from a year-plus hiatus to face a familiar foe; Dustin Poirier. In the…

By: Tim Bissell | 3 years ago
UFC 257: Poirier vs. McGregor 2 was one of the UFC’s highest ever selling pay-per-views
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At UFC 257 this past weekend Conor McGregor made his return from a year-plus hiatus to face a familiar foe; Dustin Poirier. In the main event McGregor suffered his first TKO loss inside the MMA cage, when Poirier finished the Irishman midways through the second round.

The card, which featured Michael Chandler knocking out Dan Hooker in the co-main event, is reportedly on track to be one of the promotion’s best selling pay-per-view events to date.

That reporting comes from John Ourand of Sports Business Journal:

According to Ourand UFC 257 has logged 1.2 million pay-per-view buys through ESPN+ and an additional 400,000 buys from international markets. That total, of 1.6 million global buys, puts the event very high on the list of all-time best-sellers.

According to Tapology the top selling UFC pay-per-view event ever was UFC 229: Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor, which clocked in at an approximate 2.4 million buys. If Ourand’s numbers are true, UFC 257 now sits joint second place with UFC 202: Diaz vs. McGregor 2 for second highest selling UFC PPV ever.

The events now sitting at third and fourth both feature McGregor. UFC 246 (where be beat Donald Cerrone) and UFC 196 (where he lost to Nate Diaz). The fifth placed highest selling UFC ppv was UFC 100, which aired in 2009 and featured Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Georges St-Pierre vs. Thiago Alves and Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping.

It’s expected that McGregor earned a percentage of revenue from pay-per-view sales, a practise typically reserved for UFC champions (though, not always). It’s unknown if Poirier will be getting a cut of the buys.

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Tim Bissell
Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

Tim is also BE's lead (only) sumo reporter. He blogs about that sport here and on his own substack, Sumo Stomp!

Email me at tim@bloodyelbow.com. Nice messages will get a response.

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