The UFC is a massive organization and Dana White is a massive fan of numbers. And why shouldn’t he be? The promotion makes millions every other month by singular pay-per-views alone. Recently, the announced Gate at multiple UFC PPVs was put together in a list and Sean O’Malley did not disappoint.
So far this year, we’ve had UFC 297, 298, and 299. Headlined by champions from different divisions, these pay-per-views brought in people from all over the country and more to the specific stadium just to enjoy the matchups. But the Suga show was one PPV that did the most.
Sean O’Malley vs. ‘Chito’ Vera emerges supreme
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The people’s hearts were in grips and their eyes, peeled as they watched Sean Strickland go to absolute war against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297. The pay-per-view was massive and many people came to enjoy the show. The announced Gate of the event came down to $7,898,695.
Similar numbers were reached by Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria when the two clashed at UFC 298. ‘The Great’ lost his featherweight belt after over 1500 days of reigning as the champion and the announced Gate was 7,264,734.
To trump it all, Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera‘s main event clearly brought a lot of eyes to the stadium. Perhaps it was more than just that one fight. The card was as stacked as they come with Dustin Poirier going up against Benoit Saint-Denis and former Bellator’s phenom Michael ‘Venom’ Page making his debut against Kevin Holland.
#UFC Q1 2024: 11 Events
Announced Attendance Total: 89,654 (5 Events)
Announced Gate Total: $31,486,934 (4 Events)
6 UFC Apex Events: Attendance/Gate N/ABreakdown:
Jan 13: Ankalaev vs. Walker 2 (UFC Apex)Jan 20: UFC 297: Strickland vs. DDP (Toronto)
Announced Attendance:…— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) March 31, 2024
The announced Gate of that fight was almost twice of either of the first two PPVs at $14,142,904. Clearly, a fight card nobody wanted to miss out on. Sean O’Malley emerged victorious over Vera and soon called out the champion from UFC 298 but will he get to fight him though?
Will the UFC see an O’Malley vs Topuria card?
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The UFC is a promotion where having multiple belts is a thing of rarity. This is perhaps why Sean O’Malley quickly called out Ilia Topuria just so he could secure that double-champ status. But many, including Topuria, believe that perhaps it’s a bit too soon. ‘El Matador’ would go on to ask the champ to first defend his belt for a second time against another Georgian fighter.
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“Merab’s next,” Sean O’Malley would soon say on the TimboSugarShow podcast. “Merab is f****** next. Your wish is granted . . . A lot of people said I’m ducking him — I just really am not ducking that little dude . . . I like the fight for me.”
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“There’s multiple ways to win. I’m excited about the fight now, finally. I was never ducking him, I was just never excited to fight him. He’s just such a, I don’t know — now, is it the right time?” He wondered and compared his fight with Vera which came years after his initial defeat. Perhaps, we’ll get to see how well a UFC pay-per-view between ‘Suga’ and Dvalishvili does in terms of the money.
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