Pundit Arena Because Sport Is Everything
Looks like that 6.5 million buys claim may have been a bit wide of the mark…
During the week, a clip of Dana White speaking with Urijah Faber appeared to show the UFC President claiming that the Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather super-fight had been purchased 6.5 million times on pay-per-view in the United States alone.
If that assertion proved to be true, Mayweather/McGregor would not only have broken the all time pay-per-view record, it would have shattered it by almost two million buys.
However, although the event is still being labelled a ‘pay-per-view smash’, it seems that Dana White’s initial assessment may have been somewhat premature as the Associated Press and Showtime President Stephen Espinoza are now reporting that the buys are trending somewhere between the mid to high four million mark.
Mayweather-McGregor pay-per-view is tracking in the mid to high 4 million range, threatening the 4.6 million PPV buys of May-Pacquiao fight
— Tim Dahlberg (@timdahlberg) September 1, 2017
Mayweather-McGregor will end up as either the No. 1 or No. 2 pay-per-view event ever. Tracking in mid to high 4 million range now.
— Tim Dahlberg (@timdahlberg) September 1, 2017
Mayweather-McGregor fight tracking in mid to high 4 million range, which means nearly 50 million people watching in US alone
— Tim Dahlberg (@timdahlberg) September 1, 2017
Showtime's Stephen Espinoza said he's not declaring Mayweather-McGregor a new record yet, but that one is in reach once all is added up
— Tim Dahlberg (@timdahlberg) September 1, 2017
Speaking about the pay-per-view breakdown, Stephen Espinoza said that whether the record is officially broken or not, the event was undoubtedly a complete success.
“I’d absolutely call this a complete success,” Espinoza told the AP. “This was a fight that had massive expectations in both the fight itself and the business results. It lived up to those expectations in every respect.”
“It’s a little soon to be predicting a record but the record is definitely within reach… There could be a good amount of growth between the initial numbers and where we eventually end up.”
