It’s was only a few months ago when television commercials featuring famed boxing ring announcer Michael Buffer and the sport’s leading active North American drawing card, Canelo Alvarez, talking about the $9.99 price tag of DAZN and how it would be the death of pay-per-view.
Given that the UFC in 2018, did an estimated 5,515,000 pay-per-views buys, which generated approximately $185 million for the promotion, including the biggest show in company history in October, the idea that pay-per-view was anywhere close to dead seemed laughable.
And to a degree, the new deal announced Monday with ESPN+ and UFC seems to guarantee nothing of the sort will happen until 2025.