UFC 254 was reportedly solely the promotion’s fifth-highest pay-per-view occasion of 2020, with a viewership stated to be round 675,000 tuning in to see Khabib Nurmagomedov’s light-weight title protection in opposition to Justin Gaethje.
That’s in accordance with the Sports activities Enterprise Journal, who reported the occasion drew in lower than half of the 1.three million patrons who tuned in to witness UFC 251, through which Kamaru Usman efficiently defended his welterweight title in opposition to Jorge Masvidal.
Sports activities Enterprise Journal stories 675Okay buys for #ufc254 pic.twitter.com/5ggnGyxBe4
— Jason Cruz (@dilletaunt) October 29, 2020
UFC 254 additionally ranked under UFC 246 (1 million PPV buys), UFC 253 (700,000) and UFC 249 (700,000), respectively.
Conor McGregor made his return to the game at UFC 246, beating Donald Cerrone by way of TKO in simply 40 seconds.
At UFC 253, Israel Adesanya prolonged his MMA file to 20-Zero as he beat Paulo Costa by way of a second-round TKO to defend his middleweight title for a second time, whereas at UFC 249 Gaethje received the interim light-weight title – and earned his shot in opposition to Nurmagomedov – in opposition to Tony Ferguson.
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The numbers come after UFC president Dana White stated on October 20 that the struggle was trending to beat the two.four million PPV buys Nurmagomedov’s 2018 conflict with McGregor generated.
“This factor is trending off the charts for us proper now,” White had stated. “So, right now is Tuesday and on Monday, this factor was trending to be the largest struggle now we have ever had. Not Thursday, not Friday, Monday.”
Nevertheless, White did query whether or not that development would proceed, although, given the occasion at Battle Island in Abu Dhabi started at 2pm Jap Time in the USA.
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Certain sufficient, the shortage of a primetime slot seems to have had a major impression on the viewership because the occasion needed to compete with faculty soccer.
In line with the Nielsen Score System, the preliminary card – which started two hours earlier – averaged simply 343,000 viewers on ESPN2, making it the lowest-rated UFC broadcast of the yr.
Nurmagomedov prolonged his file to 29-Zero in the principle occasion as he defended his light-weight title for the third time in his second-round submission of Gaethje, earlier than asserting his retirement from the game.
