Dana White predicts over 2 million PPV buys for McGregor-Khabib

Dana White is confident that UFC 229 headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov will be big business for the promotion.

White believes the card will do over 2 million in pay-per-view buys and could approach 3 million.

“I am confident it will do 2 million on pay-per-view,” White has said, according to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole.

The demand for tickets for the event has been extremely high, which is an indicator of the public interest in the event.

The projection by White is bold but not ridiculous. McGregor has been a part of four of the top-five highest-selling pay-per-view fights in UFC history, though he’s topped out at 1.65 million. Asking for him to push it to 2 is a lot.

But a few things have happened since McGregor’s last UFC fight. He fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. in boxing, which likely increased his profile. And he also started the infamous bus attack incident in a beef with Khabib, his UFC 229 opponent. Will that be enough to push the buys past 2 million? It would be a UFC record if it happens.