UFC 232 does impressive PPV buys
The reported pay-per-view (PPV) buys of UFC 232 are in and they did very well.
It is being reported that UFC 232 did roughly 700,000 PPV buys which means the UFC may very well have made the right call in moving the card to Inglewood from Las Vegas. The numbers are being reported by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, which is ever so reliable in terms of PPV numbers.
WON reports #UFC232 did roughly 700,000 PPV buys. #UFC
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) January 11, 2019
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For reference, UFC 229 did the highest PPV numbers as it did 2.4 million buys, given it was the biggest fight in MMA history as Conor McGregor took on Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, UFC 231 did around 240,000-300,000 buys, UFC 230 did 250,000 and UFC 228 did about 130,000 buys. In the end, the UFC ended off the year with the second highest PPV buy of 2018 to show that Jon Jones is a big draw.
UFC 232 was headlined with the rematch five years in the making between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. But before the fight even started, there was a ton of controversy. A recent drug test by Jones found picogram levels of M3, the same metabolite that was he got suspended for in 2017. Therefore, USADA believed he never re-ingested it and cleared him to fight, however, Nevada would not give him his license. Thus, prompting the move from Las Vegas to Inglewood to keep Jones on the card.
In the end, Jones defeated Gustafsson by TKO in the third-round to reclaim his light heavyweight belt.
Obviously, the main event was good, but the co-main definitely helped sell the card. It was the biggest women’s MMA fight in history when bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes took on featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. Nunes was looking to become the first ever women to become champ-champ in the UFC and she did exactly that. Nunes shocked the world and knocked out Cyborg in just 51 seconds to win the belt.
It was a great card and the PPV numbers show that.
