The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s fourth pay-per-view event this year has reportedly drawn strong numbers, when the MMA promotion returned with a bang this past weekend.
After a month of hiatus, the UFC became the first sports organization to return to to normal schedule amid the global pandemic as it staged the UFC 249 PPV event last Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida.
Lightweight stars Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje starred in a thrilling main event, with the latter securing the interim title after a dominant fifth-round technical knockout victory.
Mixed martial arts fans also witnessed Henry Cejudo’s final Octagon fight as he announced his retirement after making short work of former champion Dominick Cruz in the co-main event.
Francis Ngannou took home extra $50 000 for the Performance of the Night honor, following his 20-second finish of Jairzinho Rozenstruik in a battle of two knockout artists.
According to a report by Sports Business Journal, the revamped fight card was a success in terms of pay-per-view numbers as it generated more than 700 000 buys.
“Early numbers are showing that Saturday’s UFC 249 was a pay-per-view success for ESPN+. Sources told SBJ’s John Ourand that ESPN’s streaming service logged north of 700,000 buys, which is a really good number for any card that does not feature Conor McGregor,” the report said.
Very Happy
In the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White shared that the promotion’s broadcast partner is ‘very happy’ with the numbers while stressing the event should have not been postponed last month.
“It did very well. (ESPN is) very happy. They should’ve listened to me three weeks ago,” White said.
The outspoken head honcho also commented on what went down in the main event, saying “I think the fight could have been stopped a little sooner.”
“Tony took a lot of damage tonight. Not only did he take a lot of damage, he took damage from a guy who f*cking hits like a truck, a guy who hits very hard, and usually knocks people unconscious when he hits people. So I actually think the stoppage was great, and I think it could have been stopped sooner.”
UFC 249 Fight Card Full Results:
Justin Gaethje def. Tony Ferguson via fifth-round TKO
Henry Cejudo def. Dominick Cruz via second-round TKO
Francis Ngannou def. Jair Rozenstruik via first-round KO
Calvin Kattar def. Jeremy Stephens via second-round TKO
Greg Hardy def. Yorgan De Castro via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Anthony Pettis def. Donald Cerrone via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Aleksei Oleinik def. Fabricio Werdum via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Carla Esparza def. Michelle Waterson via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
Vicente Luque def. Niko Price via TKO (strikes; doctor stoppage)
Bryce Mitchell def. Charles Rosa via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-24)
Ryan Spann def. Sam Alvey via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ UFC)