ESPN To Issue Partial Refunds; McGregor-Diaz III Perfect To Determine Poirier Next Foe

UFC 257 was undoubtedly a resounding success, now being considered one of the biggest pay-per-view events in the promotion’s history. But the broadcast was not spared from issues in select regions.

When the show started to air, some encountered problems trying to access through ESPN+. Users who had already paid to see the card were inconvenienced by it and ESPN issued a statement regarding the matter.

“We’re aware that a technical issue prevented a portion of users from accessing part of the ESPN+ pay-per-view event, and we apologize for that experience,” ESPN officials said per Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. “We worked as quickly as possible to identify and resolve the issue.”

The problem affected only a portion of the audience located in the Western part of the United States. The technical glitches occurred from a few minutes to an hour into the event, MMA Fighting reported.

To make up for the issue, ESPN plans to issue partial refunds to those who were affected by the glitch that prevented them from watching the entire pay-per-view.

Also, the network vowed to look into the issues that tainted UFC 257 to ensure that such does not happen again in the future.

UFC president Dana White said after the event that UFC 257 will likely end up as one of the top two PPV broadcasts in the history of the promotion. It appears to hint that the card sold over one million buys.

UFC 229 remains the top pay-per-view in the UFC. This was the event in 2018 where UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov won over McGregor via submission that reportedly sold over 2.4 million buys.

Ironically, McGregor was part of both PPVs even though he lost. Regardless, this backs the claim that “The Notorious” remains one of the promotion’s top guys to reel in big revenue.

McGregor did say he plans to return although it remains unclear who he could be fighting next. While the logical fight to make is a rematch with Poirier, a third fight with Nate Diaz could also make sense.

“Myself and Dustin are 1-1, myself and Nate [Diaz] are 1-1. There’s many good matchups for me and I’ll adopt a different approach for the trilogy I feel with Dustin because those leg kicks are not to be messed with,” McGregor said at the post-fight conference via MMA Fighting.

Diaz stressed that he wanted a shot at Poirier following “The Diamond’s” victory over the Irishman.

But the best way to determine who Poirier faces next is a decider between McGregor and Diaz, something that could settle to score in their colorful rivalry.