Dana White Addresses Fan Issues With Buying UFC 236 PPV

Dana White addresses the issues that fans dealt with while trying to buy UFC 236 on pay-per-view.

The UFC recently announced a new way to watch pay-per-views as they signed an exclusive broadcast deal with ESPN where all fans must go through ESPN+ in the United States. Traditional PPV buying methods remain the same outside of the U.S.

The way that the deal works is that fans must first subscribe to ESPN+ and then purchase the event for $59.99. It should be noted that new ESPN+ subscribers are being offered packages with reduced prices.

With the UFC 236 pay-per-view event being the first under this new change, issues were expected by the Las Vegas-based promotion. Many fans and even fighters had issues with the new setup.

This is something that the UFC President talked about in the post-fight press conference.

“Not too long ago, we were in pay-per-view negotiations, and we didn’t like the way they were going, so what you don’t ever want to do is to give us a little time to think outside the box,” White said (H/T to MMAFighting). “So we started talking to ESPN, the talks moved really fast and we struck a deal with ESPN. And we knew we had to pull this fight off very soon, on both sides. And we knew that there were gonna be some hiccups. Hopefully, there aren’t. Hopefully, you can get everything dialed in.

“The next one will be much better. The next one, you’ll be able to purchase right through the app. It’s gonna get easier, it’s gonna get better.”

Promises To Improve

The UFC and ESPN started out their working partnership back in January. The deal was recently extended through 2025 and is worth in excess of $1 billion.

“I’m not just saying this because I’m in business with these guys,” White said. “You know, you’ve seen me in business with guys that I don’t exactly love being in business with. It happens sometimes. These guys are so good at what they do. They’re so good, they’re so on top of everything. We’ll get the problems that people had tonight fixed. And it’ll only get better.”