Report: UFC 225 Estimated at 250,000 Pay-Per-View Buys
Despite being one of the promotion’s deeper cards of 2018, it doesn’t appear that UFC 225 was a massive pay-per-view success.
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For 2018, that number would place UFC 225 behind UFC 220, which was headlined by a heavyweight title clash between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou, and UFC 223, which featured a lightweight title tilt pitting Khabib Nurmagomedov against Al Iaquinta, according to the report.
UFC 225 took place at the United Center in Chicago and was headlined by a five-round non-title clash between Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero, which Whittaker won via split decision in one of the most exciting fights of the year. That matchup became a non-title affair when Romero missed weight by 0.2 pounds. In the co-main event, Colby Covington claimed the interim welterweight crown with a five-round verdict over Rafael dos Anjos.
The card was expected to be bolstered by the presence of former professional wrestling star CM Punk, who dropped a decision against Mike Jackson in his second MMA bout. However, it did not exceed the interest in his first appearance at UFC 203, which did a reported 450,000 pay-per-view buys in September 2016.
The UFC 225 pay-per-view draw also included former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm, who became a big star with her knockout of Ronda Rousey in 2015, and ex-heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, a longtime veteran of the promotion.
An initial report by the Los Angeles Times estimated the UFC 225 pay-per-view buys at 150,000. UFC attorney Hunter Campbell would later dispute that figure, claiming that actual buy rate surpassed that estimate by “something in excess of six figures.”
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