Conor McGregor touts UFC 246 as highest selling pay-per-view of 2020 with more than 1.3 million buys

Conor McGregor knows he’s the biggest draw in the UFC and he has no problem providing the numbers to back it up.

As he prepares for his return against Dustin Poirier in January, the former two-division champion posted a copy of a bonus contract from the UFC on Monday touting the sales figures for his lone fight in 2020.

At UFC 246 in January, McGregor defeated Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the main event with the card reportedly breaking the 1,000,000 pay-per-view mark after initial sales figures were compiled. Now McGregor has released a statement on social media boasting that the card not only ended up at No. 1 for UFC pay-per-view sales for the year but the show actually did higher than expected numbers in the end.

“Congrats to the UFC on a well fought 2020!” McGregor wrote. “The only sporting company on the planet to come through the entire year. Incredible!

“I am honored to secure their highest PPV of the year with McGregor vs. Cerrone. Congrats Donald and also on his double submission win last night.”

The pay-per-view bonus contract that McGregor posted showed the projected buys for UFC 246 were over 1.285 million but the collected reported buys topped 1.353 million.

McGregor saying his card was the top pay-per-view of the year for the UFC is obviously a not-so-subtle jab at UFC 251, which was headlined by welterweight champion Kamaru Usman defending his title against Jorge Masvidal in Abu Dhabi. That show reportedly sold over 1.3 million pay-per-view buys as well.

Whether UFC 246 or UFC 251 actually ended the year at No. 1 for the promotion probably doesn’t matter much to the executives in the company, who are likely thrilled with at least two pay-per-views selling over 1,000,000 buys during the year. Because the UFC is a private company, the exact sales figures are not made available publicly.

Of course, McGregor has already taken part in many of the UFC’s most successful pay-per-views including two fights against Nate Diaz as well as his showdown with Khabib Nurmagomedov that is reportedly the biggest selling card in company history.

As for the future, McGregor undoubtedly seeks to top that number with his next fight against Poirier as the lightweights meet again after first clashing in 2014. On that night, McGregor dispatched Poirier with a first-round knockout while both fighters were competing at 145 pounds.

Now six years later, McGregor and Poirier will do battle again as the main event of UFC 257 on Jan. 23 from Abu Dhabi.