UFC 268 is reported to have drew in the region of 700,000 buys on pay-per-view for the event from Madison Square Garden, New York City on November 6th.
That’s another strong showing in what’s been a bumper year for the UFC, and will be particularly pleasing for the company given that there was major competition on the night due to going head-to-head with the blockbuster Canelo vs. Plant boxing match.
It’s also a reward for the fact that the UFC went for strength-in-depth for their UFC 268 PPV line-up, with a title rematch between bitter rivals Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington leading the way.
Another title rematch between strawweight champion Rose Namajunas and Weili Zhang provided a strong co-main event, while there was a lot of pre-fight buzz about Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler too – and it was one that lived up to the hype as it’s now a strong contender for ‘Fight Of The Year’.
All-in-all it continues an impressive upward turn for the UFC in recent times, with the company’s overlords Endeavor having claimed earlier in 2021 that it had it’s “biggest half-year ever”, and having since updated that to having had it’s “best nine month year-to-date period.”
There’s still one big pay-per-view event to go before the end of the year, with lightweight champion Charles Olivier and Dustin Poirier headlining UFC 269 in December backed up by Amanda Nunes latest bantamweight title defense against Julianna Pena, while 2022 will start with a bang when heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou goes up against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January.
