Dana White claims UFC 229 is trending to sell 2.5 million pay-per-views

It’s no secret that UFC 229, which will be headlined by a lightweight title fight between undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former two-division champion Conor McGregor, is going to be big. According to UFC President Dana White, however, it’s trending to be the biggest UFC pay-per-view ever by a huge margin.

“It’s massive,” White told ESPN this week (transcript via MMA Fighting). “There has been a lot of talk about this thing doing 2 million buys. We’re trending right now at 2.5 million buys so that’s how big this fight is. The biggest fight we’d ever done was Diaz vs. McGregor at almost 1.6 million pay-per-view buys. Then we did the Floyd Mayweather fight. And now this by far is the biggest fight and one of the biggest fights ever in combat sports to be honest with you.”

White went on to discuss the UFC’s working relationship with Conor McGregor. Apparently, it’s a healthy relationship — barring a few issues.

“Conor works very well with us,” he said. “We work well with him. There’s certain things you have to deal with Conor McGregor but he’s worth it. For example, the New York thing. The fact he thought he could come here and have this beef with Khabib in the middle of New York City and the way that it was done that was obviously the craziest thing. Normal, typical stuff for Conor is showing up an hour late for press conferences.”

White added that he believes it’s Conor McGregor’s love of fighting — not his love of money — that has pulled him back to the Octagon.