Dana White is claiming that UFC 229 is trending to do 3mill ppvb buys, what are you guys prediction for the buyrate?

Expect him to fight exactly like how he did vs Alvarez. He will try to stay long, fight at a slow pace & try to make every shot count.

For some reason it feels like this fight has not been pushed as hard as any of the diaz fights or mayweather fight.

3 million including russia @ a fraction of US prices perhaps.

I agree that this have not been marketed as heavily as it should have. Not sure who is to blame for it.

Conor is to blame. He refused to do the major promotion because he wanted to focus on the fight. Seems like the smart choice for a fighter facing a tough fight to make.

I was gonna guess ~1.6 million before Dana's comment, but it's a pretty uneducated guess. Maybe they'll get some crossover from the boxing crowd who were entertained by McGregor's act?

Wait, do people believe Dana now?

I predict 1.25M - but it should do 2.5M. I think the UFC has just been terrible with promotion since the sale. So, we'll see; hopefully this fight didn't need to be promoted and it does 2+ with absolutely minimal help.

I'll say 2.55 million. Dana lies about a lot stuff but online stuff has been getting big numbers. For the big fights it seems a lot recently have not happened for weight cut reasons or someone getting hurt but if both make weight they hype will be grow.

Lol

Khabib weighed in first and made weight & looked amazing, he has taken this fight so serious, Mcgregor is in for such a beating.

Each fighter should be allowed to enter the octagon with an extra item. Khabib gets a dolly, McGOAT gets a kilo of blow

Conor 154.5 pounds

As far as how each fighter wants to execute their strengths and what can be taken away, imho Connor has the edge

His controlling of distance and striking is phenomenal; the way he can slip, counter and attack from different angles is elite and posses a huge threat vs the takedown. Khabib also doesn’t have great head movement coming in or going away

I think this goes beyond the striker vs grappler narrative. Connors unique abilities make it extremely hard to game plan and coach against. There’s no replicating what he does and that’s part of what makes Connor elite. The space / angles and power are just different from other fighters. Accounting for this is really difficult, esp in that training environment where you don’t want to give anything up to the other fighter. Coaching strategy and how to maintain an effective game plan will be essential to Khabib if he’s going to maintain his goal of endless takedowns

Not a fan of Connor but do think that his unique abilities are devastating the first time you experience it. The interesting questions are how will Connor’s power and precision affect Khabib at lightweight and how tenacious Khabibs takedowns will be executed adjacent to that

Also afaik neither fighter has proven to be dominant in the 4th or 5th rounds

Some of Khabib’s side control into step over mount transitions are just unbelievable. The way he can get what he wants is on another level. Emotional control and not gassing out will be another key point when Khabib gets advantage


For the experts out there why do we see higher takedown defense rates at heavier weight classes? Is that a speed / fluidity thing being countered by sheer strength + threat of k.o. power? Less grappling in general = less expertise

Also how does Khabib takedown effectiveness compare to other elites

TSN is reporting that in Canada alone, UFC 229 has already presold 1million buys. Umm, i think this fight maybe bigger than we actually think it is boys.

Went back and watched Khabib's fights. Seems to take him about 2 minutes to get the take down. During those 2 minutes he gets pretty ****ed up. Going to be really risky against Conor. First 2-3 minutes of this fight going to be huge.

'I could go into heavy detail... AND I WILL' had me laughing out loud

This is gonna be a great fight

What a amazing promo, can't wait for tonight boys.

Wow, is GSP the special guest referee or something?

If it's really gonna do 1 million in Canada, then wouldn't that mean like 5 million+ worldwide? That Canada # seems dubious.

If this fight does 2 million+ then UFC pretty much has to offer Conor a piece of the company to keep going if he's serious about retirement.

My brother is vacationing in Vegas and just got comped tix to the fight and he's not even much of an MMA fan. I'm pretty jealous. He must be losing his ass at roulette though.

Great performance in the opening prelim by Holtzman.

don't think they use worldwide as metric for ppv buys. Maybe canada is included though?

Wtf am i gonna do after December 3rd when BTsport loses UFC?

That's a scary lady.