Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier face off on Saturday, July 10 in what is expected to close their trilogy of UFC fights. Barring a draw, one of these two will take the rubber match. However, both are expected to do plenty well at the box office.
Reports indicate that McGregor is guaranteed $3 million just for showing up and will also receive 60% of the pay-per-view share. Poirier is guaranteed $1 million for entering the cage and will receive 40% of the PPV share.
How many PPV buys can we expect to be sold? It’s a bit of a moving target, but given that this is the third fight between these two, there is some room for comparison. When these two fought in January atop the UFC 257 card, the event had 1.6 million total buys. That card featured no championships on the line, which is the case here. There are some interesting bouts — with Gilbert Burns vs. Stephen Thompson in a welterweight contenders bout as the penultimate fight — but it’s not exactly a barnburner of a card.
The report above estimates McGregor could earn $10 million in total while Poirier could earn $3 million int total. However, there is one interesting aspect to this event that could impact PPV revenue. The event will air on ESPN+ for $69.99. However, UFC has partnered with AMC Theaters to air the fight in movie theaters across the country for the price of $25. It will be interesting to see how many people find out about this and choose that option to save $45 on the card.
While that could theoretically lower the overall revenue, it could encourage more people to go to the event and in turn boost the revenue number due to sheer quantity of people in the theater.