UFC 205 went down without a hitch. Conor McGregor captured the lightweight title to become the first fighter in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) history to simultaneously hold two championship belts, the promotion was able to set a new gate record of $17.7 million for Madison Square Garden and the New York market finally felt the wrath of professional mixed martial arts (MMA). But that's not all.
During a recent episode (shown above) of "The Herd," Colin Cowherd and Kristine Leahy discussed the record-breaking social media presence that UFC 205 sparked.
"There are some records out of UFC 205, all the records broken in that fight including the live gate at $17.7 million," said Leahy. "Attendance over 20,000. The weigh-in attendance got over 15,000, which is a new global UFC record. The FS1 prelims.
"Here is the crazy one. Social media impressions — 14 billion social media impressions. That includes things like tweets, likes, responses, which is the most in UFC history. Just to kind of compare that to something that we can understand, how many do you think the Super Bowl had, impressions?"
"Five billion," answered Cowherd.
"4.3," responded Leahy.
"So the UFC fight had 14 billion social media impressions and the Super Bowl had one-third of that," added Cowherd.
While UFC rather enjoys the financial kickbacks of an event the size of UFC 205, it's nice to see that the sport of MMA is beginning to catch on with the masses. Remember, UFC 205 was the first time the promotion touched down in New York City, leading fans to believe it's only the tip of the ice berg.
"The Northeast media wouldn't even cover this for years," said Cowherd. "Cause newspaper guys are all cranky and want to talk American league central baseball standings. This UFC thing has been on fire for a decade and big chunks of the American media just don't pay attention.
"14 billion impressions! It's killed boxing and it makes wrestling look goofier than its ever looked."
It's safe to say we're witnessing one of the most important stages of MMA's global evolution. Buckle up, fight fans!