UFC 295 Is Second-Highest-Grossing Event In MSG History

The UFC waited a long time for MMA to become legal in New York. Since the ban on the sport was lifted in 2016, the UFC has made its presence felt in the state. With the success of Saturday’s UFC 295 pay-per-view card, the promotion now has the top three highest-grossing events in the history of Madison Square Garden.

UFC 295, which took place on November 11, had an attendance of 19,039 and a gate of $12,432,563. The event saw Tom Aspinall crowned the interim UFC heavyweight champion with a first-round knockout win over Sergei Pavlovich. In the evening’s headlining bout, Alex Pereira became a two-division UFC champion when he knocked out former UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka to claim the vacant UFC light heavyweight crown. Pereira held the UFC middleweight belt from November 2022 through April 2023.

As successful as UFC 295 was at the box office, its gate number fell short of the first UFC fight card to be held at MSG. That card, UFC 205, took place in November 2016 and drew 20,427 fans to the vaunted arena for a gate of $17,740,543. In the headlining bout of that event, Conor McGregor knocked out Eddie Alvarez to become the first UFC fighter to hold two titles at the same time. McGregor entered the octagon that night as the UFC featherweight champion. He added Alvarez’s UFC lightweight title to his trophy case with a second-round knockout win.

The third-highest gate in MSG history belongs to UFC 281, which took place on November 12, 2022. Pereira also fought in the main event of that card, facing then-UFC middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya. Pereira won the belt that night with a knockout in the fifth round. In the co-headliner, Zhang Weili became a two-time UFC strawweight champion when she took the belt from Carla Esparza via second-round submission. UFC 281 had a gate of $11,562,807 and an attendance of 20,845.

Overall, UFC 295 was the fourth-highest grossing UFC pay-per-view event in the history of the promotion. It follows UFC 205, UFC 229 ($17,200,000), and UFC 264 ($15,759,800). The fifth highest grossing UFC card was UFC 129 ($12,075,000).

*Gate
GT
and attendance numbers via UFC.