8.5 Million PPV Buys – UFC President Dana White Targeting New Milestones for 2022

One cannot rebuke the fact that UFC President Dana White is the biggest sports promoter in the world today. Dana White’s contribution to the success of UFC, and mixed martial arts, in general, is undeniable. In what has been a successful year for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and with UFC 269 yet to go down, and just a few weeks away from 2022, Dana White is sharing his new year resolutions already. 

UFC President Dana White is aiming to touch the $8.4 – 8.5 million mark in PPV buys in 2022.

The promotion had a grand start to 2021 as the Notorious Conor McGregor made his UFC return in a hugely anticipated rematch against former rival Dustin Poirier. UFC 257 was hugely successful, doing a mammoth business of 1.6 million PPV buys. According to Topology, the trilogy fight that took place in July of this year at UFC 264 did over 1.5 million buys. While the number for UFC 258 remains unknown, many reports suggest that Kamaru Usman vs Gilbert Burns did little less than 500,000 PPV buys. 

UFC in 2021: Conor McGregor, Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, Jorge Masvidal tops the list

UFC 259 was historic as Israel Adesanya attempted to become a two-division champion, going up a weight class to take on then middleweight champion Jan Blachowicz. The match-up garnered the attention of fight fans around the words, as UFC 259 did an impressive 800,00 buys. According to various reports, UFC 260: Miocic vs Ngannou 2 did a business of little less than $300,000. 

UFC 261 was quite successful in its own right as the much-awaited rematch between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal did over 700,000 PPV buys. UFC 262 fetched around 300,00 buys, while UFC 263 featuring Israel Adesanya and Nate Diaz could only manage to bring in 600,000 PPV buys.

Dana White tells Jim Rome they will be break the PPV buy record this year. He says it will be 8.4M or 8.5M buys

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) December 2, 2021

According to multiple sources, UFC 265 managed a little over 300,00 PPV buys. UFC 268, featuring the grudge match between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, managed to bring in 700,000 PPV buys. With UFC 269 scheduled to go down next weekend, it’s safe to say that the likelihood is, UFC managed to sell over $6 – $7 million PPV buys. The target for 2022, though admirable, will be tough to achieve. However, UFC is not new to breaking records.