The early numbers are in and UFC 263, led by a middleweight rematch between champion Israel Adesanya and rival Marvin Vettori, did considerably well across the board.
According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, UFC 263, which went down on June 12 live on ESPN+ PPV from inside Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, reportedly did over 500,000 PPV buys in the U.S. only. The event did even better on the global scale with over 600,000 PPV buys.
While these numbers aren’t going to break any UFC records they’re nothing to scoff at. This was Adesanya’s return to middleweight after a failed attempt to capture UFC gold at light heavyweight and it was also Vettori’s first PPV headliner. The middleweight rematch was fairly one-sided, but these numbers show that “Last Stylebender” is one of the bigger stars on the roster.
It should be noted that UFC 263 also featured a flyweight title rematch between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno, as well as a five-round welterweight clash involving Leon Edwards and Nate Diaz. The flyweights certainly produced in their co-main event spot, but it was Diaz who likely boosted the overall PPV numbers in his awaited return to the cage.
In comparison to other recent UFC PPVs, UFC 263 did well for itself. UFC 261, which featured three title fights and a rematch between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal, reportedly did 700,000 PPV buys. And UFC 262, which was headlined by a lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler, did over 300,000 buys.
For complete UFC 263 results and coverage click here.