Dana White: UFC 205 has already set Madison Square Garden gate record

Earlier this year, the MMA community rejoiced as New York became the last state to finally legalize MMA.

The announcement of MMA’s legalization in New York was followed up by an announcement from the UFC in which is was announced that they would be hosting UFC 205 at the historic arena.

Now, with just over two weeks to go until the event takes place, the card has shaped up to undoubtably be one of the greatest in the history of the sport. Below you can see the current fight card:

Note: * Indicates champion

Main card (Pay-per view)
*Eddie Alvarez vs. *Conor McGregor
*Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson
*Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina kowalkiewicz
Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Donald Cerrone
Miesha Tate vs. Raquel Pennington

Preliminary card (Fox Sports 1)
Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Michael Johnson
Rashad Evans vs. Tim Kennedy
Vicente Luque vs. Belal Muhammad

UFC Fight Pass prelims:
Jim Miller vs. Thiago Alves
Rafael Natal vs. Tim Boetsch
Liz Carmouche vs. Katlyn Chookagian

According to UFC President Dana White, who spoke on the World Series pre-game show about the historic fight card, the card has already set the Madison Square Garden gate record, two weeks prior to the event actually taking place.

“I wanted to make sure when we went to New York, we delivered. It’s the biggest, baddest card we’ve ever done in the history of the company.”

“We’ve been in all the biggest and best arenas all over the world, Madison Square Garden’s a big deal. Legendary fights that have been held there, all the legendary events, and we actually broke the gate record for Madison Square Garden. So…so far so good. I’m excited.”

Only time will tell if the card also sets UFC pay-per view records, however UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, who is competing for the lightweight championship in the main event of the card, has stated that he believes this event will shatter all previous UFC records. Interestingly enough, McGregor already holds the record for headlining an event with the most PPV buys, UFC 202, where McGregor and Nate Diaz had their highly anticipated rematch.