The biggest fight of the year also ended up as the most problematic.
Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor was undoubtedly the most watched combat sports event in 2017, but unfortunately the demands to watch the event out weighed the online systems built to broadcast the fight.
Numerous customers complained on Saturday night after both ShowtimePPV.com and UFC.tv experienced outages, buffered streams and crashes during the event that cost viewers $99.99 for a high definition broadcast.
Earlier this week, Showtime was hit with a class action lawsuit over the issues before sending out a statement that the network would be issuing refunds for those customers who experienced serious issues with the broadcast.
Now, UFC president Dana White has done the same while promising that viewers who purchased Mayweather vs. McGregor but were unable to watch would be issued refunds.
“We always try to put on the biggest and most exciting fights,” White said on Tuesday. “We want our fans to have the best experience when watching our events. Unfortunately, we didn’t deliver the way we wanted on Saturday because of NeuLion’s technical issues on UFC.tv. As usual, we always take care of our fans and will fix this.
“We have started processing refunds immediately for anyone that could not access the fight after purchase.”
Statement from @DanaWhite: pic.twitter.com/ErvWRnjnVe
— UFC (@ufc) August 29, 2017
It’s welcome news for viewers who were upset on Saturday night when the online stream for the fight caused so many issues.
Unfortunately, White had previously stated that the addition of online availability for the fight could help drive Mayweather vs. McGregor to record breaking numbers on pay-per-view but these refunds could hamper those final figures.
At this time, there has been no word on how many pay-per-views were sold for Mayweather vs. McGregor but the card was reportedly trending towards breaking the all time record of 4.6 million buys from the 2015 bout between Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao.
