Conor McGregor posts specific UFC 246 PPV buys; Jorge Masvidal, team dispute top 2020 numbers

Conor McGregor has the receipts to show he’s still one of MMA’s top draws – but is he at the very top?

McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC), a former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion, made the unprecedented move of sharing purported official UFC documents showing the pay-per-view buy rate for his January fight with Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.

Although it was reported through the media that the event, which took place Jan. 19 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and saw McGregor win by knockout in 40 seconds, had topped 1 million buys, the numbers shared by McGregor shows it cleared that benchmark by a good margin.

According to the document McGregor posted to his social media Monday, UFC 246 pulled in 1,353,429 buys (via Twitter):

Congrats to the @ufc on a well fought 2020! The only sporting company on the planet to come through the entire year! Incredible!
I am honoured to secure their highest PPV of the year with McGregor Vs Cerrone.
Congrats Donald, and also on his double submission win last night. #No1 pic.twitter.com/Xvh76Gki3U

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) December 21, 2020

Congrats to the @ufc on a well fought 2020! The only sporting company on the planet to come through the entire year! Incredible!
I am honoured to secure their highest PPV of the year with McGregor Vs Cerrone.
Congrats Donald, and also on his double submission win last night. #No1

In his comment, McGregor claimed UFC 246 was the promotion’s highest selling pay-per-view of the year. The other massive pay-per-view for the promotion in 2020 was UFC 251 in July, headlined by Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal for the welterweight title, along with two other championship contests.

Masvidal’s (35-14 MMA, 12-7 UFC) manager, Abraham Kawa of First Round Management, disputed McGregor’s claim and said UFC 251 surpassed those numbers – but wouldn’t reveal proof (via Twitter):

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— Ibrahim Kawa (@Abraham_kawa) December 21, 2020

I don’t think Jorge would like that. We don’t dim another man’s light to make ourselves shine brighter. He knows as we do

— Ibrahim Kawa (@Abraham_kawa) December 21, 2020

Masvidal chimed in, as well (via Twitter):

I’m not even trying #supernecessary

— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) December 21, 2020

I’m not even trying #supernecessary

Whether or not McGregor achieved the top pay-per-view of 2020 or was slightly behind, it’s clear many still have a vested interest in watching him fight, and he gave the promotion a strong start to what turned out to be a year filled with unprecedented challenges caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.

McGregor will have a chance to do the same in 2021, as he headlines the first card of the year again in a lightweight rematch with Dustin Poirier on Jan. 23 at UFC 257.