Floyd Mayweather taking on Conor McGregor was expected to be the most talked about fight of 2017 but when it’s all said and done, the event may go down as the biggest of all time.
Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza has confirmed that Mayweather vs. McGregor sold ‘mid to high’ four million pay-per-view buys for the card that took place last weekend in Las Vegas. The all-time record is held by Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao from 2015 with the final tally at 4.6 million buys in North America.
While the final numbers won’t be confirmed for at least another week, Showtime seems confident that the mega-fight that pit undefeated boxer against UFC champion will at least challenge for the record.
Earlier this week in a video posted by UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber, it was UFC president Dana White who claimed that the card sold a whopping 6.5 million pay-per-views, but it’s entirely possibly he was referencing the total number of sales worldwide.
Mayweather vs. McGregor was expected to be a juggernaut on pay-per-view all over the globe, especially considering the reach the UFC lightweight champion has made during his prolific career inside the Octagon.
Even if the fight ultimately doesn’t take down the record held by Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, it’s clear Showtime and everybody else involved is extremely happy by the results posted thus far in terms of pay-per-view sales.
It’s good news considering both Showtime and the UFC have been forced to offer refunds over the past few days following numerous problems with viewers attempting to purchase and watch the event online.
It seems the number of refunds being handed out won’t affect the final numbers on pay-per-view all that much as Mayweather vs. McGregor gets closer and closer towards record breaking status.
The fight saw Mayweather notch his 50th career win with no defeats while surpassing legendary heavyweight Rocky Marciano, who retired with a perfect 49-0 record. McGregor was making his professional boxing debut as he made it into the 10th round before suffering a TKO to Mayweather after eating a number of unanswered punches.
The final pay-per-view figures for the card are expected in the coming days.
