It’s been a month since the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight and we’ve been waiting to learn if the fight broke pay-per-view records. BoxingScene reports that the fight will generate 4.4 million buys. While that’s a fantastic number, the second-highest ever for a boxing event, it still falls short of the Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao bout in 2015. That fight was purchased by 4.6 million customers.
Some observers, including UFC president Dana White, felt that Mayweather-McGregor would reach or even surpass 5 million buys, but that apparently will not be the case.
Piracy through a variety of live and illegal streaming apps, including Facebook Live and Periscope, definitely ate into the final numbers. With a price of around $100, many felt that was too expensive. But even with that in mind, both Showtime and UFC feel the Mayweather-McGregor event was a success.
Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza did say that Mayweather-McGregor would come “very, very close” to breaking the Mayweather-Pacquiao record. That appears that it won’t happen. The fight also couldn’t top the live gate of Mayweather-Pacquiao, but the $55.4 million generated is still the second-highest ever. When all is said and done, it could even surpass the overall revenue for Mayweather-Pacquiao, thanks to the international PPV buys and other money generated.
But even if the event didn’t set a record, no one is going to call it a failure for “only” drawing 4.4 million in buys.
