Report: UFC 254 earns 675K pay-per-view buys
Saturday's UFC 254 generated 675,000 pay-per-view buys, sources told Sports Business Journal.
500,000 of those buys reportedly came in the United States on ESPN+.
In the main event, Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0) retained the lightweight title with a second-round submission of interim champ Justin Gaethje. Nurmagomedov announced his retirement from mixed martial arts after the win.
The show took place at Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, capping off a five-week stretch on "Fight Island." The UFC 254 main card started at 2 p.m. ET, eight hours earlier than the regular start time for a pay-per-view event. Nurmagomedov has a large fan base in his native Russia and other countries in that region.
The last two pay-per-view events - UFC 253: Adesanya vs. Costa and UFC 252: Miocic vs. Cormier 3 - reportedly drew 700,000 and 500,000 buys, respectively. The highest-selling pay-per-view of 2020 was UFC 251, which saw Kamaru Usman beat Jorge Masvidal in the main event.