Conor McGregor remains as the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s pay-per-view behemoth, with his return fight against Donald Cerrone smashing previous streaming record.
The McGregor vs Cerrone welterweight clash served as the headlining bout of the UFC 246 fight card last January 18, which took place at the T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It was McGregor’s first MMA fight in 15 months and his first appearance at 170 pounds since his back-to-back welterweight bouts against Nate Diaz in 2016.
Both fighters promised a war ahead of the fight but ‘The Notorious’ turned it into a short affair as he finished Cerrone in less than one minute.
According to McGregor, he becomes the first fighter in the history to score a knockout win across the featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight classes, following his brutal 40-second knockout.
Aside from this, the former two-division champion also steered the UFC 246 main event bout on top of the streaming records.
New Record
According to The Walt Disney Company’s CEO Robert Iger, the McGregor vs Cerrone fight recorded the highest streaming pay-per-view buys in the history, tallying one million buys, which toppled KSI and Logan Paul’s previous record of 814 000.
In a report by MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer, he cited: “The price for McGregor vs. Cerrone was raised to $64.99 on top of the $4.99 per month to be an ESPN+ subscriber, meaning just under $70 total. “
“McGregor vs. Cerrone would have generated $70 million based on those numbers just in streaming revenue, as well as an $11 million live gate at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.”
“That wouldn’t include revenue from television and streaming pay-per-view outside the U.S., which could hit $20 million.
Lightweight Rematch
With McGregor’s return fight smashing the streaming records, UFC president Dana White looks to pick up where they left off as he plans to book the Irish star against Nurmagomedov in a re-run of their October 2018 showdown.
The lightweight title fight at UFC 229 also brought in huge numbers as it recorded 2.4 million PPV buys.
“When you look at what makes sense, we’re at a place right now where Conor was saying going into the Khabib fight (at UFC 229) – he had lot of personal stuff,” White said.
“Some stuff (was) self-inflicted. He had injuries. He had all these things going on. He has been obsessed with getting that rematch because he knows he wasn’t 100 percent, right?
“When you look at this for Khabib, Khabib is 28-0. He’s undefeated. You start talking about this kid’s legacy. First of all, to go 28-0 in this sport? I don’t care who you’ve fought.”
“It’s tough to do. Well, this guy is a world champion. After tonight, with how Khabib won the first time, and how famous Khabib has become since that first fight, we’re looking at Hagler-Hearns.”
“We’re looking at Ali-Foreman (or) Ali-Frazier. This is a massive fight with global appeal. It’s the fight you make.”
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(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ UFC and Donald Cerrone)