UFC 223 draws reported 17,026 attendance for $3 million live gate

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Saturday’s 223 event drew an announced attendance of 17,026 and a live gate of $3,007,108.12.

UFC President Dana White announced the tallies at the post-fight news conference, which MMAjunkie attended. The gate total was a new venue record for sporting events, the UFC announced.

UFC 223 took place Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

In the main event, Khabib Nurmagomedov (26-0 MMA, 10-0 UFC) became the new lightweight champion with a dominant unanimous decision over Al Iaquinta (13-4-1 MMA, 8-3 UFC), who took the fight on just a day’s notice. In the co-feature, Rose Namajunas (8-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) defended her women’s strawweight title with a second win over former champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk (14-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC).

The event was the UFC’s seventh in the state of New York since MMA legislation was passed in 2016. Prior to UFC 223, the promotion visited Madison Square Garden twice, Buffalo, Albany, Uniondale and the first time around in Brooklyn for UFC 208 in February 2017.

UFC 223 ranked fourth in attendance among those five shows.

The UFC New York attendance marks since the 2016 legislation include:

1. “UFC 205: McGregor vs. Alvarez” – 20,427 attendance ($17.7 million live gate), Madison Square Garden
2. “UFC 217: Bisping vs. GSP” – 18,201 attendance ($6.2 million live gate), Madison Square Garden
3. “UFC 210: Cormier vs. Johnson 2” – 17,110 attendance ($2 million live gate), Buffalo
4. “UFC 223: Khabib vs. Iaquinta” – 17,026 attendance ($3 million live gate), Brooklyn
5. “UFC 208: Holm vs. De Randamie” – 15,628 attendance ($2,275,105 live gate), Brooklyn
6. “UFC Fight Night 102: Lewis vs. Abdurakhimov ” – 6,216 attendance ($411,000 live gate), Albany
7. “UFC on FOX 25: Weidman vs. Gastelum” – 11,198 attendance ($1,088,332 live gate), Uniondale

For complete coverage of UFC 223, check out the UFC Events section of the site.