Report | UFC 242 trending for massive PPV success

According to a report from Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports, early figures suggest UFC 242 could be one of the biggest pay-per-view events in UFC history. The card will be topped by a lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier.

Nurmagomedov’s last fight against Conor McGregor in 2018 was one of the most anticipated match-ups in UFC history. The UFC 229 event sold over 2 million pay-per-views and shattered all previous PPV records for the promotion. The UFC would of course be happy to recreate this success when Nurmagomedov returns to the Octagon against Poirier this Saturday.

Yahoo! Sports’ report claims that “early traffic numbers for UFC.com and its social media accounts prior to UFC 242 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi are similar to what they were before Nurmagomedov fought McGregor at UFC 229.”

The report also mentions that the UFC has posted previous Nurmagomedov and Poirier fights to build hype. On the Youtube channel, 5 free fights posted have gained over 35 million views as of Wednesday. This includes Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Michael Johnson which is the third most viewed video on the Youtube UFC platform. The same videos have accomplished more than 49 million views on Facebook and 13.9 million views on Instagram at the time of this writing. According to Yahoo! Sports, UFC 242-related content across all UFC platforms has over 112 million views.

Nurmagomedov’s popularity skyrocketed during the mounting tension against his last opponent McGregor. The Irish warmonger instigated a war of words that got violent on several occasions. However, Nurmagomedov got his payback when he submitted his Irish foe in the fourth round and proceeded to jump the Octagon and attack McGregor’s training partner Dillon Danis. The ongoing beef between the UFC titans has solidified Nurmagomedov’s superstar status. Combined with his loyal Russian fan base and undefeated record, the lightweight champion has gained a significant foothold as one of MMA’s biggest draws.

Stay tuned to BJPENN.com for full coverage of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier at UFC 242.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/4/2019.