Dana White Explains ESPN+ Troubles That Plagued UFC 236

On the night of the UFC’s pay-per-view debut on ESPN+, you couldn’t actually order the event through their app.

Saturday night marked the debut of UFC pay-per-views being available exclusively through ESPN+. It’s a new system, and it did not go down without some complications for people trying to order UFC 236 through various apps on different kinds of devices.

Even hardcore fight fans like Frankie Edgar were stuck getting a strange “The event you’ are trying to watch is not available for purchase on this device” message.

Turns out the folks at ESPN+ weren’t able to put UFC 236 up for sale through the app itself. Dana White explained the situation to TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter.

”So what happened was, this thing happened so fast, this whole deal and the way it all happened fast,” White said. “ESPN has been working hard to try and get this thing ready, this date ready. So tonight they had to buy it on the computer, and then you could move it to anything you want.”

“Next time you’ll just buy it right through the app. It will be much easier from here on out and I apologize for anybody that had trouble tonight. It’s only going to get better and easier every time.”

”This deal came out of nowhere,” White added during the post fight press conference. “We were having trouble getting a deal done with regular pay-per-view providers and it gave us the idea to look elsewhere. We did, we ended up striking a deal very quickly with ESPN and everybody had to work fast to get this thing done. Tonight wasn’t perfect, but we’ll get things fixed.”

Hopefully the confusion didn’t hurt UFC 236 sales, because the event really was a must see show for anyone who loves mixed martial arts.

What were your experiences thus far with ESPN+, Maniacs?