The numbers are staggering, remarkable and yet entirely believable.
Conor McGregor’s next sit-down with the UFC brass, including their new owners, will be interesting.
The Notorious is already taking in close to $15m per fight and the confirmed pay-per-view figures of his last four fights show how popular a figure he has become.
Respected MMA writer Dave Meltzer has been compiling PPV and gate receipt figures for well over a decade and the numbers suggest the UFC is heading back to its peak. 2009 and 2010 brought in respective average PPV figures of 616,000 and 589,000.
Those numbers declined over the next few years before plummeting in 2014 [267,000 average] as the promotion lost big names such as Georges St-Pierre, BJ Penn and [to injury] Anderson Silva.
McGregor and Ronda Rousey were making strides in the sport around that time. By 2015, their stars were rising as rapidly as the PPV buys.
The four PPVs headlined by McGregor sold a gargantuan figure of 5,275,000. According to Bleacher Report, Rousey’s three fights in 2015 sold 2.6m PPVs.
Events headlined by McGregor and Rousey averaged 1,125,000 PPV buys. Take them out of the equation, over the last two years, and the average is 408,667. That’s including the stacked UFC 200.
The duo’s seven events – out of 22 held in 2015 and 2016 – have accounted for 52% of the PPV buys.
There are four PPV events left in 2016 so big interest in even a couple of them could see the year surpass the promotion’s best ever return, 2009. All the UFC needs is McGregor to headline one event and Rousey to surprise us all by making a December comeback.
McGregor has reported himself fit for fighting duty at UFC 205, in New York, this November.
With Eddie Alvarez seemingly tied to a lightweight title defence against Khabib Nurmagomedov, it looks like the UFC are pushing McGregor towards a featherweight tilt with interim champion Jose Aldo.
One suspects McGregor is well aware of his pulling power and may yet get his fight with Alvarez.
UPDATE: He did! McGregor vs. Alvarez confirmed for UFC 205 on November 12.
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