UFC 251 hits 1.3 million PPV Buys

Nov 2, 2019; New York, NY, USA; Jorge Masvidal (red gloves) reacts during his fight against Nate Diaz (blue gloves) during UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Sarah Stier-USA TODAY Sports

If anyone wants to doubt the drawing power of the Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal, you need to sit down. UFC 251 did extremely well on PPV and the numbers were released today that told us just how well it did.

One of the best in UFC history

Dana White said that the card was trending higher than a Conor McGregor fight. He wasn’t lying as there have only been three events in the company’s history to have drawn more PPV buys.

  1. Khabib vs McGregor – 2.4 Million PPV
  2. Diaz vs McGregor 2 – 1.6 Million PPV
  3. McGregor vs Diaz – 1.317 Million PPV

Kamaru Usman – Jorge Masvidal did the same amount of PPV buys as UFC 205 which was headlined by Conor McGregor. That night the UFC put three title fights on for their first show ever in New York.

Jorge Masvidal is a needle mover at the highest level. Yes, he’s not quite on the Conor McGregor level, but he’s right there. In fact, UFC 251 did better on PPV than UFC 246 did which featured the return of the notorious one.

You had to think that the UFC was hoping that Masvidal would have pulled out the victory on Saturday. A McGregor-Masvidal fight would have been the biggest fight in UFC history. There is always the possibility of that in the future, but for now, the fight is a dream.

Dana White and company hit it out of the park on Saturday and they owe a lot to Jorge Masvidal. No disrespect to Gilbert Burns, but UFC 251 does not do nearly as good without Gamebred on the card.