Report: UFC 226 PPV buys just under 400,000 for ‘Miocic vs Cormier’

UFC 226 — which went down last Saturday night (July 7, 2018) in Las Vegas, Nevada — proved to be a historic night for Daniel Cormier, who became only the second UFC fighter to hold two division titles simultaneously after knocking out Stipe Miocic in round one.

But, it may not have been the box office smash the promotion would’ve hoped for to cap off International Fight Week. MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer has the scoop; and while the numbers aren’t terrible, they aren’t exactly off the charts.

The expectation going in was that this would be the biggest show so far this year. But the most preliminary of pay-per-view estimates have the show doing a little under 400,000 buys. There are those who believe the loss of Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega hurt interest, but Cormier vs. Miocic on its own should have been able to do bigger numbers.

Indeed, a Featherweight title fight between division champion Max Holloway and Brian Ortega was canceled two days prior to fight night after Max was pulled due to health-related issues.

Stepping in to fill the co-main event void was a much-anticipated heavyweight showdown between Derrick Lewis and former title challenger Francis Ngannou which ultimately proved to be a bust.

As for the preliminary portion of the UFC 226 event -- which was headlined by a thrilling Middleweight showdown between Paulo Costa and Uriah Hall — they did a bit better than UFC 225 (667,000) nabbing a total of 668,000 views on Fox Sports 1.

Are you surprised by the overall number UFC 226 produced?