Report: UFC 202 Breaks Pay-Per-View Record with 1.65 Million Buys

UFC President Dana White says a trilogy bout between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz makes no sense. Recent pay-per-view projections indicate otherwise.

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, UFC 202 looks to be the Las Vegas-based promotion’s highest-selling event of all-time with approximately 1.65 million buys. That figure checks in slightly ahead of the two previous best draws: UFC 196 and UFC 100. The Aug. 20 event took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and was headlined by a welterweight rematch between McGregor and Diaz, which McGregor won via majority decision.

UFC 196 was topped by the first meeting between the two rivals; Diaz won that contest by second-round submission. Meanwhile, UFC 100 saw big-ticket stars Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre make title defenses on the evening’s main card.

Thus far in 2016, the promotion is estimated to have three cards sell in excess of 1 million pay-per-view buys: the aforementioned pair of events headlined by McGregor and Diaz as well as UFC 200 on July 9. The UFC does not release pay-per-view numbers, so the figures are based on industry projections.

UFC 202 set pay-per-view order records for DirecTV as well as on UFC.TV online, according to the report. The 1.65 million figure does not include purchases through the UFC for streaming, however. McGregor earned a disclosed $3 million payday at the event, while Diaz banked $2 million.

White has shot down the idea of a trilogy between the two multiple times since UFC 202, indicating that he’d prefer that McGregor next defend the featherweight title he won from Jose Aldo last year.