Report: UFC 230 ‘Cormier vs. Lewis’ estimated PPV buys reach 250,000

The early numbers are in for this month’s UFC 230 pay-per-view (PPV) event, led by a heavyweight title fight between champion Daniel Cormier and top contender Derrick Lewis, and the Nov. 3 card in New York City has been estimated at 250,000 PPV buys, per a recent report by MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer.

Those numbers would put UFC 230 on par with other 2018 events such as UFC 227 ‘Dillashaw vs. Garbrandt 2,’ which did an estimated 300,000 buys, and UFC 225 ‘Whittaker vs. Romero 2,’ which was tallied close to 250,000 buys.

That said, UFC 230 didn’t quite stack up to Cormier’s last Octagon appearance at UFC 226 back in July, in which he defeated heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic to become just the second fighter in UFC history to simultaneously hold titles in two separate weight classes. That record-setting performance pulled in nearly 400,000 buys.

At first, UFC 230 was building up to be one of the biggest events of the year. Not only was the main card expected to feature a middleweight rematch between former UFC champions Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman, but Nate Diaz was scheduled to return to the Octagon against surging lightweight contender Dustin Poirier.

Injuries to both Rockhold and Poirier ultimately nixed those matchups. Weidman was re-booked against “Jacare” and Diaz was removed from the card completely.

With these anticipated bouts off UFC 230’s main card, and considering the promotion only had a few weeks to promote the headlining act between Cormier and Lewis, maybe 250,00 PPV buys isn’t that bad after all.

Of course, it’s no UFC 229.