Recently released investor documents have revealed that 38.6% of the UFC revenue in 2015 came from PPV, and it looks like Conor McGregor's "four billion dollar man" nickname isn't far off the truth.
Despite their numerous global TV deals, their domestic partnership with Fox Sports, and their own streaming service, Fight Pass, the UFC are still heavily dependent of the income of their PPV events.
In 2015, $609million of the company's revenue was down to fans buying PPV events, and they can thank Conor McGregor for a large portion of that figure. The SBG man's two fights in 2015 accounted for over a quarter of that figure.
McGregor's bouts at UFC 189(Chad Mendes) and UFC 194(Jose Aldo) recorded 2.025 million buys, and while that was still less than Ronda Rousey's 2.6 million buys, the former Women's Bantamweight champion had one extra fight compared to the Irishman.
With the Featherweight champ's two fights against Nate Diaz in 2016 being rumoured to be close to the three million mark, it would appear the Crumlin native is easily the company's biggest star.
The PPV figures of 2015 show a stark contrast when compared to those of 2014, which saw the company's event sales drop for a number of reasons, most notably cancelled events and last minute injuries forcing main and co-main headliners to withdraw from bouts.
The UFC have fixed these problems thanks to a strategy the documents, which were obtained by MMAJunkie, called "double stacking". The term refers to the process of placing more effort into making sure the main PPV events have better depth in the co-main and throughout to appease fans even if the headliner was pulled.
The promotion also revealed that they have been keeping fighters on retainer in case of such emergencies, with big-name stars ready to jump in and save cards at the last minute.
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