Conor
McGregor may very well be on the decline in his mixed martial
arts career, but he nonetheless remains the Ultimate Fighting
Championship’s top draw.
According to a report from the Sports
Business Journal, UFC 264 drew a total of 1.8 million
pay-per-view buys, making it the second-highest selling event in
promotion history. UFC 229 was the top seller with a reported 2.4
million pay-per-view buys for a card headlined by a lightweight
championship clash between McGregor and Khabib
Nurmagomedov.
UFC 264 reportedly sold 1.3 million buys in the United States on
ESPN and another 500,000 internationally. The card, which took
place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, saw Dustin
Poirier emerge victorious in the rubber match against the
Irishman when McGregor suffered a gruesome leg break after stepping
awkwardly at the end of Round 1.
Earlier in 2021, McGregor’s second-round TKO loss to Poirier in the
UFC 257 main event on Jan. 23 did a reported 1.6 million buys. All
told, McGregor has taken part in the Las Vegas-based promotion’s
Top 6 selling cards: UFC 229, UFC 264, UFC 202 “Diaz vs. McGregor””
(1.6 million buys), UFC 257, UFC 196 “McGregor vs. Diaz (1.3
million) and UFC 205 “McGregor vs. Alvarez” (1.3 million). All
figures are based on industry estimates because the UFC does not
officially release sales figures for its pay-per-view events.