The UFC is set for two back-to-back mega events with UFC 299 and UFC 300. Both the cards have been stacked to the bottom for fans to enjoy. Fans in turn have repaid Dana White and the UFC with a record-breaking gate for UFC 299. The card is headlined by Sean O’Malley, who puts his belt on the line for the first time against Marlon Vera. Interestingly, this is also the first time O’Malley has headlined a PPV card himself. Besides this, UFC 299 marks the UFC’s return to Miami for the first time since UFC 287.
The UFC hosted its pre-fight press conference a few hours back. During the press conference, a reporter asked Dana White about potentially returning to Miami a lot sooner next time around. In response to the question, White said,
“This is one of the most electric press conferences of all time. So Saturday night, $13.75 million gate, we broke our record from last time. The highest gate ever in the arena’s history. Miami you are awesome, thank you.”
The previous record mentioned here by Dana White was that set by UFC 287, which accumulated a total of $11.9m. It was headlined by Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya. A gate of $13.75 million makes UFC 299 the fourth highest gate in UFC history behind some of the most iconic fights of all time, according to a post from Championship Rounds.
Per. Dana White at the #UFC299 Press Conference, the gate for UFC 299 is $13.75M, making it the 4th highest gate in #UFC history, behind:
1) UFC 205: Alvarez vs McGregor
2) UFC 229: Nurmagomedov vs McGregor
3) UFC 264: Poirier vs McGregor 3 pic.twitter.com/I4ghHLvjMP— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) March 8, 2024
Conor McGregor naturally occupied the first position for his UFC 205 fight against Eddie Alvarez. The gate for that event was a whopping $17.7 million. This was followed by $17.2 million for UFC 229 between ‘The Eagle’ and ‘The Notorious’. In third place is UFC 264 between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, which brought in $15.75 million. UFC 299 was just $2 million, short of breaking into the top three.
While the purse gives ‘The Notorious’ a good competition, Sean O’Malley also has aspirations to reach McGregor’s levels in the future.
Sean O’Malley’s Conor McGregor sized ambitions
‘Sugar’ is one of the bigger stars the UFC has on its roster at the moment. O’Malley further raised his status with a brilliant knockout win against Aljamain Sterling to win the title. However, if he wants to realise his dreams of becoming as big as Conor McGregor, defending the title against Marlon Vera is imperative.
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If O’Malley can put on a similar performance as he did against Sterling, it would further make him a huge deal in the UFC. ‘Sugar’ has stated he wants to earn $200 million from fights, surpassing what McGregor did. At the moment, he is a long way away from that. However, a win on Saturday night will surely take him one step closer to his goal.
