Breaking Records
Heading towards 2015, McGregor was riding a four-fight winning streak in the UFC, but hadn’t yet proven he could translate his growing popularity into pay-per-view sales.
Nonetheless, while rubbing shoulders with other major stars at a special UFC ‘Time Is Now’ press conference in November, McGregor boldy predicted that he was about to become the sport’s biggest draw.
“There is a lot of great stars up here, a lot of huge huge fights, but let’s see by the end of 2015, lets see who has the highest PPV numbers, lets see who has the highest gate, lets see who has the highest attendance, because I am setting up for that,” McGregor confidently predicted.
It was a big statement when you consider that this was at a time when Ronda Rousey was at the peak of her powers and Jon Jones was heading into an eagerly anticipated title fight with Daniel Cormier.
Still, ‘Mystic Mac’ would prove to be right on almost all counts, with McGregor’s fight with Jose Aldo at UFC 194 being 2015’s most watched pay-per-view event with 1.2 million buys (the second highest in UFC history at the time), while it also broke the MMA record for the highest gate in the United States, raking in over $10 million.
