White: Jesus will have to fight the devil to break UFC 205 records

The UFC made its debut at Madison Square Garden with the biggest MMA event in history. MSG is not only the capital of the combat sports world, New York is along with London the capital of world finance. It is hard to overstate the importance of UFC 205, which set a lot of records, as explained by UFC president Dana White at the post-fight press conference.

For one, the $17,700,000 live gate eclipsed the $13,500,000 set by Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield in 1999. But there were more.

“Sitting here tonight we broke every record in UFC history tonight,” said White, as transcribed by Chuck Mindenhall for MMA Fighting. “Every record. The only one I’m waiting on now is the FOX number, how did FOX Sports 1 do. It would be really, really weird and make no sense if we didn’t break that one too.”

White was asked if 205 beat the pay per view television record of 1,650,000 buys set by Conor McGregor at UFC 202.

“We did,” said White. “We broke the record.”

Tickets were selling for as much as $18,000, which is awesome, but it means a lot of fighters and fans at a similar income level couldn’t attend.

“We definitely priced fans out,” said White. “I mean there’s no doubt that that did happen. It’s not one of my favorite things to do, but basically, it’s no different than…it’s dynamic pricing. It’s no different than a plane ticket. When there’s so much demand a plane ticket goes up. That’s what happened.

“I mean, the place was sold out. It was packed to the rafters. We broke the Madison Square Garden record, which I don’t think will ever be broken again. Jesus is going to have to fight the Devil to break that record man. I just don’t see what does it.”