Fortunes changed for five at UFC 202

Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, with no titles at stake, are almost assuredly going into the record books as the biggest money series of fights in UFC history. Their first fight at UFC 196 did 1.6 million buys, the company’s all-time record, even topping UFC 100 in 2009. While it’s still too early to get any kind of numbers from Saturday’s show, the 5 million Google searches did well over double anything else, sports or otherwise, in the U.S. this past weekend, and that’s on the final weekend of the Olympics. There have been a few UFC shows that have done numbers in that category. Some, including the first Diaz vs. McGregor fight, did even higher. But all of them at that level were in the 1 million or more buys category. If UFC 202 breaks 1 million, it would be the first time any match in UFC hit that figure twice. And the record will get even stronger since no matter what either man does in the short-term, there’s a good chance of a third big fight sometime in 2017. The live gate was $7,692,010, the fifth-largest in company history. While down from $10,746,248, the all-time U.S. record, set at the same T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for UFC 200, coming back so quickly to the same market with such a high ticket price show is difficult. There were plenty of tickets available for Saturday’s show, and over the last week, there was late discounting. But the UFC has never even approached anything close to $18.5 million in two shows so close together, let alone in the same arena. Between what the fight drew and the quality of the fight, and that both men are split with one victory apiece, a third fight seems to be something everyone would want, in due time. Dana White has indicated it wouldn’t be right away, nor should it be. McGregor either has to defend the featherweight title against Jose Aldo, or relinquish the title. McGregor has steadfastly claimed he didn’t want to vacate the title. And even if the much larger version of McGregor that showed up Saturday can’t hit 145, the win and his notoriety could lead to a title shot at lightweight, with Eddie Alvarez, who has been taunting McGregor clearly hoping for it to happen. Saturday’s decision was close, but seemingly less controversial than many close calls on fights of this caliber. As a general rule most reporters agreed with the judges that McGregor won the first, second and fourth round. The only question was whether round three was a 10-8 round or not. A 10-8 round usually comes down to either total domination, which it was not, or being on the verge of finishing, which depends on how you interpret how close Diaz was to ending it when the horn sounded. I had it 10-8, but that was a minority viewpoint, feeling that McGregor was in serious trouble and it was on the verge of being stopped as the round ended. In all, 14 of the 19 media scores, or 74 percent of media scores at MMADecisions.com, had it 48-47 for McGregor, just as judges Derek Cleary and Jeff Mullin had it. Glenn Trowbridge gave Diaz a 10-8 third to have a 47-47 draw on his card. Four of the media scores listed agreed with Trowbridge, and only one scored the fight for Diaz. While one could argue the second round for Diaz, as he had a 37-34 edge in strikes during the round, McGregor got two knockouts early in …

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