UFC Rumors: Conor McGregor Pullout Scare Forces Dana White to Cut Down UFC 303 Ticket Prices

Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler’s bout at UFC 303 is one of the most hyped-up fights in UFC right now. However, the recent developments have been making the fans go through a huge wave of emotions. The UFC buffs were excited when McGregor hinted at a huge announcement during his Duelbits live, and then came the happy announcement of a would-tour presser in Ireland for UFC 303. But now an anticlimactic situation has happened after 8000 seats sold out for the conference! UFC and McGregor apologized for postponing the conference just 12 hours before the start time!

This not only made the fans upset but also cast a shadow on the fight even happening. Everyone donned their thinking hats and formulated different theories, but still no words from the UFC. Since this match was highly anticipated, the ticket prices for UFC 303 were also sky-high. But now it seems that the prices have dropped just like people’s excitement.

Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler fight tickets have a price reduction

An Instagram page by the name of Overdogs posted a picture where the ticket prices are shown along with ‘The Notorious’ and Chandler’s faceoff picture. The caption read, “The cheapest ticket on StubHub has dropped to $691 since the McGregor pullout rumor…”

So if the fans go to StubHub right now, they can see that the ticket price is starting from $691 which is almost half of what it was before! All this has happened after the postponement of the conference and after ESPN took down the posts about UFC 303. Veterans are speculating that the reason might be an injury, contract negotiations, or even safety concerns for the people of Dublin due to a recent protest in Ireland. Nothing can be confirmed for sure but McGregor did mention in his apology post that the reasons for cancellation were out of their control.

On top of that, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev stated that the fight might be canceled given the present situation. He was asked on the ‘Ushatayka’ YouTube channel, whether he would like to fight Arman Tsarukyan or McGregor. He said,  “…McGregor would be interesting but I don’t think that even his next fight will take place because we recently saw a video there and recently their press conference was canceled. I don’t think that he will be able to go out at all.”

It is indeed alarming that the ticket prices have dropped drastically from what it was before with many big names losing confidence in the fight materializing! Let’s see what the actual starting prices were before all the chaos.

UFC 303 original ticket prices

McGregor is coming back after almost 2 years in hiatus due to his operation after an injury in the last fight with Dustin Poirier. People have been eagerly waiting for this comeback. According to a previous post shared on ESPN MMA, it was written that ‘“The lowest ticket price for McGregor vs. Chandler is nearly double the lowest ticket sold from his last fight against Dustin Poirier and UFC 300 in April.”

The image on the post showed the prices of the tickets and it stated that the starting price was a whopping $1,014! The increase was from $538 which was the lowest ticket price for the Irishman’s last Octagon appearance at UFC 264. The previous fight gathered a revenue of  $15,759,800 and became the 4th highest live gate in UFC history. As for the new price, it indubitably played a role in setting the promotion’s highest-recorded gate of $20 million, weeks before the event.

However, this time the prices were doubled and now, it is again back to the same price bracket. Now it can be because of the latest problems arising at the conference or it can also be the distaste of fans due to the high price. Fans had even speculated that because Dana White offered a $300,000 performance bonus to fighters in UFC 300, they increased the ticket price this time to get back the revenue. But now, since the prices have been cut by almost $323, let’s see what changes with the PPV, if at all.