The recent UFC 253 event appears to have been another big success for the promotion with The Athletic reporting that the show drew in the region of 700,000 buys on pay-per-view.
If true then that would see it comfortably outdo UFC 252: Miocic vs. Cormier III, which was also seen as a successful show, but by comparison only did 500,000 PPV buys in August.
We say ‘only’, but by normal standards 500,000 would generally be considered a win for the UFC for any show aside from one featuring their biggest draw, Conor McGregor.
However, despite all the chaos that’s occurred in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the pay-per-view business has been booming for the UFC and so four out of their past five PPV’s have recorded between 500,000 – 1,300,000 buys.
At 700,000 buys, UFC 253 sits level in third place for the year with UFC 249 in May, the promotion’s first big event back after the lockdown, which was headlined by an interim lightweight title bout between Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje.
Saturday night’s numbers suggest that Adesanya has now proven himself to be a genuine draw for the company, and rightly so after a run that’s seen him defeat many of the division’s biggest names, including Robert Whittaker, Yoel Romero, Kelvin Gastelum and most recently his two round dismantling of Paulo Costa.
Outside of the Octagon Adesanya also draws headlines and an ongoing and intensifying feud with Jon Jones suggests that potentially even bigger PPV numbers could await ‘The Last Stylebender’ in the future if he can continue to extend his perfect 20-0 career record.
