After UFC superstar Conor McGregor faced off against Floyd Mayweather Jr. for his professional boxing debut in one of the year’s most highly anticipated sporting events, UFC President Dana White claimed that the match up was a grand success. McGregor suffered a TKO loss to his opponent, but still walked away with a career high payday of $100 million.
Beyond that, White claimed that the fight had broken all pay-per-view records, including the coveted record set by Mayweather vs. Pacquiao for most PPV sales. However, Showtime sports quickly refuted White’s claim and provided a global press release that shows Mayweather vs. McGregor as having reached the second highest selling PPV of all time. This puts it just under the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight from 2015.
Here is a look at the Showtime release:
SHOWTIME SPORTS confirmed today that the SHOWTIME PPV presentation of Mayweather vs. McGregor on August 26, 2017 generated 4.3 million pay-per-view buys in North America. This includes traditional television distribution and online portals such as the new SHOWTIME PPV app and SHOWTIMEPPV.com as well as UFC.TV in U.S. and Canada.
Mayweather vs. McGregor, a four-fight SHOWTIME PPV boxing event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, officially stands as the second largest pay-per-view event of all time behind Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, which set the North American pay-per-view mark at 4.6 million buys in 2015. The SHOWTIME PPV totals for Mayweather vs. McGregor far exceed the now third best event in history—nearly doubling the 2.48 million buys for Oscar De La Hoya vs. Mayweather in 2007.
The total global revenue from the event including ticket sales, sponsorship and international distribution exceeds $600 million, which—along with Mayweather vs. Pacquiao— is among the largest for a single-day sporting event of all time. Mayweather and SHOWTIME PPV now account for the three highest grossing pay-per-view events in television history with the third-ranked event Mayweather vs. Canelo from 2013.
Since the release of the pay-per-view numbers, Dana White has again come forward with a statement. This time, the UFC president offered some criticism for Showtime.
In a new interview with Yahoo Sports, White stated:
“I don’t give a sh*t about Showtime’s f**king full of sh*t press release they put out, it’s the biggest fight ever, ever in combat sports history. The thing did over 6.7 million buys, and if the service didn’t drop we would have got closer to 7 million. It was the biggest boxing event ever, without a boxer… The way that they handled that press release, and what they did. I didn’t trust those guys before and now I despise those f**king guys. I’ll never work with them again, ever.”
Executive vice president and general manager of Showtime, Stephen Espinoza has now decided to retaliate to White’s recent criticism over social media. Taking to Twitter, Espinoza stated:
“Sounds like he’s upset because we committed the cardinal sin of telling the truth (when we released the accurate total for N. American PPV buys on MayMac).
Strange that telling the truth, in a press release vetted by all parties in advance, is something to be ‘despised’ for.”
Sounds like he's upset because we committed the cardinal sin of telling the truth (when we released the accurate total for N. American PPV buys on MayMac).
Strange that telling the truth, in a press release vetted by all parties in advance, is something to be "despised" for. https://t.co/rFxKXz0Bjz
— Stephen Espinoza (@StephenEspinoza) January 5, 2018
