Jon Jones successfully defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight title last Saturday night (March 2, 2019), outlasting Anthony Smith in the main event of UFC 235, which went down from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada (highlights).
And according to WON via Jed I. Goodman, the fans tuned in, as he estimates the promotion raked any quite a significant number of buys, good enough to enter the top five money-making events since 2017 for the promotion.
The 5 biggest UFC PPV estimates since 2017:
UFC 224 Conor/Khabib 2.4M
UFC 217 Bisping/GSP 875k
UFC 214 Jones/DC 860k
UFC 232 Jones/Gus 700k
UFC 235 Jones/Smith 520k-650k early estimate— Jed I. Goodman (@jedigoodman) March 7, 2019
It’s no coincidence that three of those five events had “Bones” as the main attraction. Jon’s fight against Smith was his second championship fight in just three months, as he took out Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 on December 29, 2018.
UFC 235 also featured a Welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Kamaru Usman, as well as the much-anticipated debut of Ben Askren, who defeated Robbie Lawler via submission.
In a move that should make the UFC higher-ups and accountants very happy, Jones is keen on fighting at least three more times in 2019, which should not only make him a bit wealthier, but help the promotion pay off the $4 billion tab.
Music Money to UFC’s ears.
Up next for Jon could be a title defense against hard-hitting Thiago Santos, who stormed his way to the top of the contender’s list with three straight knockout wins, more recently taking out Jan Blachowicz a couple of weeks ago.
For complete UFC 235 results and blow-by-blow coverage click here.