UFC president Dana White has claimed that the Mayweather/McGregor fight did 6.5 million buys, which would destroy the existing worldwide PPV record set by the 2015 Mayweather/Pacquio (5.5 million) fight. That figure may be inflated though, as technical issues with UFC.tv forced some viewers to purchase the event twice. After initially deflecting the blame and refund requests to video technology provider NeuLion (NLN), White has since announced that the UFC will be issuing refunds to fans who had issues streaming or logging in to their account.
Howie Long-Short: They say that any publicity is good publicity. Perhaps not when dealing with a mega-fight. NLN shares are down 10% since fight night.
Fan Marino: ESPN is claiming 1 in 6 Americans watched the fight (50 million people). My informal poll (i.e. guessing) says that 5/6 people on the east coast were sleeping by the time the fight started. How come every other sport airs games during the east coast’s primetime, but PPV boxing & MMA start at 12:30a?
Dana White: Refunds in works for UFC.tv customers who missed Mayweather-McGregor fight
