As Dana White readies to start promoting boxing, he’s already picking a fight with the industry leader at Showtime.
The UFC boss told the world that his biggest star Conor McGregor broke every pay-per-view record there is to have, when he fought and lost to Floyd Mayweather last year.
Then shortly after Showtime refuted his claim, and sent out a global press release with numbers that place the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor event in the #2 all time slot.
Their release reads,
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.
Now, in a new interview with Yahoo Sports, the UFC boss is firing back, and continues to hold onto his claim that Conor McGregor broke the PPV record.
“I don’t give a shit about Showtime’s fucking full of shit 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 fucking guys. I’ll never work with them again, ever.” – Dana White
