McGregor vs. Diaz II Supposedly Breaks UFC All-Time PPV Record
UFC 202 was huge for the promotion, and it will be the most successful non-boxing pay-per-view event in history. Dave Meltzer of MMA Fighting is reporting that the current pay-per-view buyrate estimate for UFC 202 is 1.65 million buys.
This event ranked first for the most bought UFC PPV events, ahead of UFC 196, which did 1.6 million in March and headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 1, and UFC 100 in July of 2009 that was headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir 2.
UFC 202 took place on Saturday, August 20th, 2016, at the T-Mobile Arena Las Vegas, Nevada. The main event was a rematch between McGregor and Diaz while the co-main event was a light heavyweight clash between Anthony Johnson and Glover Teixeira. Rounding out the main card was Rick Story vs. Donald Cerrone, Hyun Gyu Lim vs. Mike Perry, and Tim Means vs. Sabah Homasi.
The UFC has had a great year on PPV as UFC 202 was the third show of 2016 to have over one million PPV buys. UFC 200 in July, headlined by Miesha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes and as noted UFC 196.
Meltzer reported that the DirecTV numbers were the highest in the promotion’s history and the PPV orders through UFCTV.com were believed to have also broken the record set at UFC 196. The UFC does not usually release pay-per-view numbers but UFC President Dana White did say after the event that it was trending to be the biggest show ever.
The UFC returns to pay-per-view this Saturday with UFC 203 at The Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, which is headlined by Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem in a heavyweight title bout.
