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UFC superstar Conor McGregor is easily the best-selling UFC fighter in company history, but it appears the retired 31-year-old former “champ champ” might be in jeopardy of losing one of his most impressive records. After UFC 251 McGregor may lose his seat atop the list of top-selling UFC pay-per-view cards ever.
UFC president Dana White revealed that stunning bit of information about the upcoming UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal PPV card on July 11 to the media on Friday in Abu Dhabi.
“This thing is trending off the charts,” White said. “This thing is trending higher than a Conor McGregor fight. The only thing this fight is comparable to is Conor-Khabib.”
UFC 229: Khabib vs. McGregor is the top-selling UFC PPV ever, and UFC 251 could be on the way to toppling that impressive mark.
White Touts Record-Breaking Merchandise Sales
White said merchandise sales were already off the charts.
“I’ll give you an interesting stat,” White said. “Our UFC store, we’ve sold more merchandise already now than we did in all of 2019.”
So it would seem White believes UFC 251 is on its way to breaking some major box-office records.
If that’s the case, one wonders if the record-breaking event could be more attributed to UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal being the first card at UFC Fight Island or if maybe it’s just the perfect timing of a hotly-anticipated fight such as Usman vs. Masvidal coming along at the perfect time.
My word.
This is UFC Fight Island 😍
Best-Selling UFC PPV Events in History Compared
According to Tapology, the best-selling UFC PPV event ever was UFC 229: Khabib vs. McGregor in 2018 at 2.4 million buys.
That’s the third-biggest event in combat sports history behind boxing’s two biggest fights ever, Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao back in 2015 (4.6 million) and Mayweather vs. McGregor in 2017 (4.3 million).
The next closest UFC events on the list are UFC 202: Diaz vs. McGregor 2 with 1.6 million and UFC 196: McGregor vs. Diaz at 1.3 million.
Both those fights happened in 2016.
It would seem that White is expecting UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal to at least bump the two McGregor vs. Diaz fights from four years ago down the list. It also appears he’s not shutting the door on UFC 251 breaking the all-time record set at UFC 229.
“This thing is trending as big of a fight as I’ve ever seen during my entire career,” White said.
You can watch White talk about his huge expectations below.
“This thing is trending off the charts. This thing is trending higher than a Conor McGregor fight. The only thing this fight is comparable to is Conor-Khabib.”
UFC President Dana White on Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal (via @ufc)
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Conor McGregor in Danger of Losing Record at UFC 251