Conor McGregor confident UFC 205 will break PPV record

UFC 205 is expected to be the biggest UFC Pay-Per View event in the promotion’s 25 year existence.

While UFC 200 back in July was expected to be the biggest event in the promotion’s history, the card took two major blows when Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz II was scrapped from the card, and when Jon Jones was pulled from his headlining fight with Daniel Cormier on just 48 hours notice.

McGregor was pulled from the card after he refused to fly to Las Vegas to fulfill his promotional obligations for the card, which prompted the featherweight champion to announce his retirement from MMA, before then revealing that he wasn’t retired. Jones on the other hand was pulled from the card just 48 hours before fight night due to a potential USADA anti-doping violation stemming form a June out-of-competition drug test.

Now, with McGregor set to potentially make history at UFC 205 when he faces Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight championship, he believes that the card is poised to break the PPV record set by his rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 202.

He spoke to MMAJunkie:

“I’m almost certain we’re talking the 2-million mark. I feel it will break the 2-million mark. That’s what I’d like, and then go from there.”

“(It will break the record) 100 percent – I think the money is there,” McGregor said. “For UFC 202, they backed it with no money. UFC 200 is where the advertising dollars went. UFC 202 was worth double what they spent in advertising dollars. UFC 202 broke the pay-per-view record with very little push. A very, very weak undercard. Now you have me, you have New York, you have history and you have many factors. They’re pushing the advertising dollars on it.”

In addition to the card being headlined by McGregor vs. Alvarez, the card will play host to a welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson, as well as a women’s strawweight title fight between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Karolina Kowalkiewicz. As if three title fights weren’t enough, the card will also play host to several marquee matchups that are pivotal for their respective divisions including a middleweight matchup between former middleweight champion Chris Weidman & Yoel Romero.