The pay-per-view (PPV) numbers are in for UFC 262 and they’re much better than expected.
UFC 262, which took place on May 15th from inside a sold out Toyota Center in Houston, Tex., saw Charles Oliveira knock out Michael Chandler in the main event to claim the vacant UFC lightweight title (highlights HERE). It was Oliveira’s ninth-straight win inside of the Octagon and his first shot at UFC gold in over 10 years with the promotion.
According to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, UFC 262 produced at least 300,000 domestic PPV buys through ESPN+. These preliminary numbers are just for U.S. viewers. International numbers were not included.
Considering UFC 262 lost a co-main event clash involving welterweights Nate Diaz and Leon Edwards these early PPV numbers are fairly impressive. Hardcore fans understand how good Oliveira and Chandler both are, but they aren’t considered major UFC stars at this point in time. Producing these type of numbers is a big success, especially considering this was just the second Octagon appearance by Chandler.
Oliveira is likely to defend his UFC lightweight title next against the winner of Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor 3, which goes down at UFC 264 this July. As for Chandler, he nearly finished “Do Bronx” in the first round of their UFC 262 main event clash so one more win should be all he needs to put himself back in contention.
UFC will return to the PPV business with UFC 263 set to go down on June 12 live on ESPN+ PPV from Glendale, Arizona. A middleweight clash between current UFC champion Israel Adesanya and surging contender Marvin Vettori will serve as the main event.