Mayweather v McGregor: Final pay-per-view numbers are official

The final numbers for the August 26 pay-per-view event featuring a main event between Floyd Mayweather and UFC’s Conor McGregor are in, and it’s safe to say that, as expected, everyone laughed and laughed their way to the bank following the exhibition, which Mayweather won via 10th round TKO.

Mayweather-McGregor was, in fact, the second-biggest pay-per-view event of all-time, coming in at a total of 4.3 million pay-per-view buys in the United States. It is behind only Mayweather-Pacquiao from 2015, fight that had been brewing and demanded for several years, which did 4.6 million pay-per-view buys in a joint effort from HBO and Showtime.

Mayweather-McGregor was a joint effort, too, by Showtime and UFC. It came in well ahead of the third-biggest pay-per-view of all time, HBO’s Oscar De La Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather event in 2007.

Whatever you thought of the spectacle, there’s no question it was a massive financial success. That doesn’t mean it was good or really helped anything in terms of boxing’s bigger or long term pictures, but it sure made a ton of money.