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ESPN app.
While the headliner itself was something of a
disappointment in terms of action, UFC
251 was nonetheless a massive pay-per-view success.
According to a report from
The Athletic, Saturday’s event did 1.3 million buys on ESPN+
for a card topped by a welterweight championship clash between
Kamaru
Usman and Jorge
Masvidal. That even surpasses Conor
McGregor’s return at UFC 246 in January,
which drew approximately 1 million pay-per-view buys to the
streaming platform.
UFC pay-per-view events have generated 1.3 million buys or more on
only five occasions. McGregor’s submission loss to Khabib
Nurmagomedov set the record with 2.4 million buys at UFC 229 in
October 2018. Other blockbuster events include UFC 202 (1.6 million
buys), UFC 196 (1.317 million) and UFC 205 (1.3 million). Outside
of Saturday’s UFC 251 card, all of the other aforementioned events
featured McGregor atop the marquee.
It’s important to note that pay-per-view buys are not officially
disclosed by the promotion or by ESPN, so figures are based on
industry estimates.
The success of UFC 251 can likely be attributed to the presence of
Masvidal, who emerged as one of the organization’s biggest stars
during a 2019 campaign that culminated with him capturing the “BMF”
title against Nate Diaz at
Madison Square Garden in New York this past November. Masvidal
accepted the fight against Usman on six days’ notice after original
foe Gilbert
Burns tested positive for COVID-19 and dropped a unanimous
decision to “The Nigerian Nightmare” at Yas Island in Abu
Dhabi.
The card included two other title fights, as Alexander
Volkanovski retained the featherweight crown with a split
verdict over Max
Holloway, and Petr Yan
claimed the vacant bantamweight belt with a fifth-round TKO of
Jose
Aldo.