The Ultimate Fighting Championship made its second appearance at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Nov. 4, for UFC 217. The event featured the long awaited return of former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in one of three exciting title fights from the night. Now it would appear that UFC President Dana White believes that the mixed martial arts promotion “destroyed it” when it came to pay-per-view sales for the event.
Georges St-Pierre entered a lengthy hiatus from mixed martial arts after successfully defending his welterweight title from Johny Hendricks back in 2013. Nearly four years later, the French Canadian phenom made his big return to the UFC in a new weight class. Making his debut as a middleweight, Georges St-Pierre went toe-to-toe with division champion Michael Bisping in Saturday’s main event.
St-Pierre went on to defeat his opponent in the third round, making “Rush” the fourth UFC fighter to ever earn a title in multiple divisions.
Now it would appear that the exciting night of fights has turned into a grand profit for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, as Dana White revealed in the UFC 217 post-fight press conference that he believes the event sold over 1 million pay-per-views.
For comparison, UFC 216 and 215 earned a total 220,000 combined pay-per-view purchases.
