White: Forget MMA, Khabib Is ‘One Of The Biggest Stars In All Of Sports’

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

UFC 254 is trending to be the biggest fight in UFC history, and it’s largely off the back of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who has become an international sensation around the world.

UFC 254 is going to be big.

That’s the message UFC president Dana White keeps hammering home in every interview and press conference appearance he’s been making over the last week.

“Monday, this thing was trending to be the biggest fight we’ve ever had,” he said on Tuesday. “Not Thursday, not Friday — Monday! It’s trending bigger than Khabib vs. McGregor!”

And while White didn’t have the updated trending numbers for Tuesday or Wednesday when he stepped out to the podium for the UFC 254 press conference (watch that here), he did have a bunch of numbers that he claimed locked in Khabib Nurmagomedov as not only one of the biggest stars in the UFC, but in all of sports.

“The reality is this … apparently people in the business don’t know this,” White said. “Khabib is one of the biggest stars in all of sports. Not just UFC. He’s one of the biggest stars in sports.”

“I knew someone was going to ask me this today. Khabib’s videos have generated 222 million views. His content that features him: over 100 million views this year alone on Facebook. He’s broken records on Instagram, I could rattle off numbers all day. He’s the number one by far most played character in the video game by a long shot. And the numbers just go on and on, I could go on for days. But the kid’s broke a lot of records.”

That, of course, plays into the massive interest in UFC 254, which has that dynamite combo of top superstar vs. true #1 contender.

“And what makes this fight so big is that people believe this kid [Gaethje] has the style to beat him,” White said. “So you have all the ingredients for a massive fight. You have a big superstar and you’ve got a kid that’s coming off an incredible win over a highly respected fighter and many people believe that he has the style to win.”

“UFC 254 impressions are at 23 billion,” White said later. “So how is this such a big fight? The world is not the same place it was eight months ago. Everything is completely different now and this is a massive fight that didn’t even need a world tour to pull 23 billion impressions.”

Who would have thought even 10 years ago during the UFC’s first golden age that the sport, let alone a single event, could generate 23 billion impressions? That’s a whole lotta clicky clicky on a wide variety of internet stuffs, we tells ya!

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 254 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN 2/ESPN+ at 12 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 254: “Khabib vs. Gaethje” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.