Controversy sells, and UFC 232 is great evidence of that.
There was much debate over the UFC’s decisions to both keep Jon Jones in the main event despite testing positive for trace amounts of Turinabol (although they weren’t considered failed drug tests), as well as moving the entire show from Nevada to California a week out from fight night. The UFC sacrificed millions of dollars in gate money from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but the clear goal was to preserve Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson for the pay-per-view buys.
As it turns out, UFC 232 was one of the high marks of Jones’ career as a PPV attraction, with Dave Meltzer reporting in his Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the card did an estimated 700,000 buys.