White: UFC 257 PPV Buys Trending ‘Great’

Former two-division champion Conor McGregor, widely considered the biggest star in mixed martial arts (MMA), currently holds four of the Top 5 pay-per-view (PPV) records in UFC, so there are certain financial expectations ahead of every “Notorious” fight.

According to promotion president Dana White, this weekend’s combat sports bonanza is trending “great” and will likely over-perform, something he’s witnessed after every UFC fight card in 2020 despite the global coronavirus pandemic.

“This thing is trending great,” White told reporters at today’s UFC 257 press conference (watch it here). “Yeah, it’s good, it’s gonna be good. When was there a bad one since the pandemic started? There hasn’t been a bad pay-per-view, they’ve all been over-performing, so you can only imagine what this is gonna do.”

McGregor was unable to break any records in his last PPV fight, a first-round destruction of longtime veteran Donald Cerrone, but UFC 246 marked the first “Notorious” card that required a subscription to ESPN+ to purchase, which may have affected the overall buy rate.

The power-punching Irishman will once against compete on the ESPN+ digital network when he rematches fellow ex-featherweight Dustin Poirier in the UFC 257 PPV headliner this Sat. night (Jan. 21, 2021) inside Etihad Arena on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi.

For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.