Showtime’s Espinoza Isn’t Backing Down, Fires Back At McGregor

UFC superstar Conor McGregor made his professional boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the summer of 2017. “Notorious” suffered a TKO loss to his opponent, but UFC President Dana White has still been praising the cross-promotional event as a grand success. White has gone on to claim that the fight has broken the pay-per-view sales record previously held by Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. However, Showtime promotions has since responded with a contrasting statement on the matter.

UFC lightweight champion, Conor McGregor.

In a global press release, Showtime has now come forward to reveal that Mayweather vs. McGregor has actually only become the second highest selling PPV.

Here is a look at the full press release from Showtime:

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.

Conor McGregor trash talking Stephen Espinoza of Showtime.

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.

UFC champ Conor McGregor

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.

Dana White has since retaliated with some heated words concerning the promotion.

In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Dana White explained:

“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.”

“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).

Executive vice president and general manager of Showtime, Stephen Espinoza quickly shot back with a retort of his own for the UFC president.

“Strange that telling the truth, in a press release vetted by all parties in advance, is something to be ‘despised’ for.”

Of course, that was not the end of it. Conor McGregor has since come forward with a heated message of his own, taking the side of Dana White in the matter.

“Shut your weasel mouth. Who gives a f**k about the North American numbers when we are the GLOBAL KINGS you shmuck. WORLDWIDE. No.1!”

Now Espinoza has revealed that Mayweather vs. McGregor may not have sold as well as “Notorious” believes.

“LOL…except that it wasn’t #1 in worldwide revenues either.”

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