UFC 251 headlined by Jorge Masvidal and UFC welterweight champion Jorge Masvidal broke all PPV records on ESPN+.
The late replacement main event bout between Masvidal and Usman sold around 1.3 Million PPV buys on ESPN+ in the US. It was the biggest fight of the year and also the most anticipating one.
According to Mike Coppinger of The Athletic, UFC 251 outsold UFC 246, which so far held the crown for the highest-selling PPV on ESPN+ with 1 Million buys. UFC 251 generated $84.5 Million in revenue from PPV sales alone.
Jorge Masvidal thanks fans and detractors
Immediately after The Athletic broke the news, ‘Gamebred’ took to twitter and thanked his fans and doubters for the overwhelming support.
The overwhelming amount of support I have received before, during, and after this journey has been humbling. Still got a lot of goals to meet. All of you that tuned in to see me win, thank you. Those that tuned in to see me lose, thank you. https://t.co/4SCJzwHV10
— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) July 13, 2020
“The overwhelming amount of support I have received before, during, and after this journey has been humbling. Still got a lot of goals to meet. All of you that tuned in to see me win, thank you. Those that tuned in to see me lose, thank you,” Masvidal wrote.
“I want to thank God for allowing me to be able to provide for my family during a time of crisis and the best is yet to come,” Masvidal concluded in his tweet.
UFC president Dana White had already given fans an indication prior to the fight that UFC 251 was trending higher and was in a blockbuster buy range.
"This thing is trending off the charts. This thing is trending higher than a Conor McGregor fight. The only thing this fight is comparable to is Conor-Khabib."
UFC President Dana White on Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal (via @ufc)#UFC251 #UFCFightIsland pic.twitter.com/6iDh0iIWAk
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) July 10, 2020
“The only thing this fight is comparable to is Conor-Khabib. Let me give it to you this way, I’ll give you an interesting stat: our UFC store, we’ve sold more merchandise already, now, than we did in all of 2019. We already beat 2019. This thing is trending as big of a fight as I’ve ever seen in my entire career.” White said.
How will Masvidal beat Usman?
While the fight may have been a blockbuster hit, Jorge Masvidal lost the fight via a lopsided unanimous decision. However, it hasn’t tanked his stock and rather elevated his popularity and he has vowed to beat Usman in a rematch.
During the post-fight press conference, he made no excuses for his loss and stated that the Nigerian was simply the much better fighter.
“I hate coming up short,” Jorge Masvidal said.
“I’m not going to make no excuses. He was the better man tonight. There were some areas where I didn’t give him enough credit, and there were some areas I felt with a better training camp I could definitely surpass him. I think I showed a lot of my wrestling on six days’ notice that I’m not too easy to take down and to hold down on the ground. ”
“I’ve got a good formula in my head though on how to beat him the next time,” Jorge Masvidal said. “I thought I had the formula. Now I know the formula — it takes a lot of gas tank, a lot of conditioning, a lot more wrestling rounds with high level guys. So I definitely got a square root on how to beat this guy.”
ALSO READ:
Henry Cejudo bets his money – and his girlfriend – that Alex Volkanovski would not beat him