The announcement that
pay-per-view prices for UFC events would increase for the
second consecutive year was understandably met with unhappy
reactions from throughout the mixed martial arts community.
Staring with UFC 270
on Jan. 22, pay-per-view events will now cost viewers $74.99. That
comes an the heels of another $5 pay-per-view increase one year
prior — along with the rising prices of an annual subscription to
ESPN+, which has risen from $59.99 to $69.99.
According to UFC president Dana White, the promotion has no input
in the price of its premium events since it gave pay-per-view
rights to ESPN as part of its broadcast deal.
“We don’t have any say in that,” White said at the UFC on ESPN 32
post-fight press conference. “We gave the pay-per-views to ESPN, so
that’s their decision.
“You know how I feel about that stuff. I don’t love when prices get
raised, but it’s not my decision, it’s their’s.”
UFC 270 is headlined by a heavyweight championship unification bout
between Francis
Ngannou and Ciryl Gane,
while Brandon
Moreno will face Deiveson
Figueiredo in a flyweight title trilogy in the evening’s
co-main event at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.