This weekend’s UFC 205 broke a number of records for both UFC and Madison Square Garden Co (NYSE: MSG). According to UFC President Dana White, UFC’s first event in New
York broke the Madison Square Garden
gate record of $13.5 million set by the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis fight back in 1999.
In addition, the fight also broke the previous UFC gate record of $12.0 million set by UFC 129 in Toronto in 2011.
According to White, the
UFC 205 gate came in at $17.7 million. Some tickets to the fight reportedly sold for more than $18,000 each.
Come On, Conor!
In addition to making history for at the gate, fighter Conor McGregor made UFC history as well be defeating Eddie Alvarez to
become the new UFC lightweight champion. With the win, McGregor has become the first fighter in UFC to hold championships in two
weight divisions at once. McGregor won the featherweight championship back in December 2015 but has yet to defend it.
UFC 205 only came about after an eight-year court battle
in New York. Mixed martial art events have been banned in the state of New York since the 1990s.
The UFC is owned by privately-held WME-IMG Group, but Madison Square
Garden stock is up 0.3 percent in Monday’s session.
Image Credit: By Andrius Petrucenia (UFC 189 World Tour Aldo vs. McGregor London 2015) [CC BY-SA 2.0 ], via Wikimedia
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