UFC 257: Dana White reiterates warning to illegal streamers – ‘we got one … we’re watching this guy right now’
- UFC president dares illegal MMA stream providers to ‘turn it on and see what happens’
- White claims company’s first pay-per-view event of year, headlined by Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier, is ‘trending great’
UFC president Dana White has reiterated his warning to illegal MMA streamers ahead of his promotion’s first pay-per-view event of the year on Sunday.
The show is set to bring in a huge buy rate, with UFC broadcast partner ESPN also increasing subscription prices and PPV fees at the start of the year.
“I’m glad you asked me about that, because we got one,” White said at Thursday night’s UFC 257 press conference inside Etihad Arena on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
“We’re watching this guy right now. All you have to do is turn it on on Saturday [Sunday morning local time] and we got you f*****. I can’t wait. Turn it on on Saturday, streamers, and see what happens.”
White said UFC 257 is “trending great” ahead of fight night, with No 6-ranked lightweight Dan Hooker also fighting former Bellator champ and UFC debutant Michael Chandler in the co-main event.
MMA world will be watching Khabib watch McGregor fight
“Yeah, it’s good,” he added. “It’s gonna be good. When was there a bad one since the pandemic started? There hasn’t been a bad pay-per-view, they’ve all been over-performing. So you can only imagine what this is gonna do.”
McGregor has commanded four pay-per-view buy rates in excess of one million buys, holding four of the top six spots when it comes to the company’s most successful events of all time.
The Irishman’s return from more than a two-year lay-off in January last year against Donald Cerrone brought in the biggest buy rate of 2020 at 1.35 million buys.
