McGregor vs. Mayweather Pay Per View Outages: Will Refunds Be Given?

UPDATE: 1:30 a.m. EDT — After technical difficulties with pay-per-views live stream of the fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, the match concluded with a clear winner.
The highly awaited match — which started at 12:15 a.m EDT— ended with Mayweather delivering a “technical knockout” to McGregor in the 10th round, and walking away once more with the title of being the ultimate undefeated professional boxer, according to the Washington Post.

During the match, UFC Fight Pass kept offering alternate viewing options to frustrated fans who were unable tune in to the UFC TV website to watch the bout live.

However, instead of reassuring the fans, it just made them angrier and soon they were asking UFC for refunds.

With some even suggesting suing for the unsatisfactory service.

Original story:

The much-anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor on Saturday midnight was delayed due to pay-per-view (PPV) outages, according to media reports.

When coverage of the event from T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, started at 9 p.m.. EDT, fans watching on the UFC’s Fight Pass reported experiencing issues with watching the event live.

It is yet unclear how many carriers or online providers are experiencing these outages and how long it will take to be sorted out.

UFC Fight Pass tweeted about the outages earlier Saturday:

According to MMA Junkie, Showtime Sports, which is also broadcasting the bout, also apologized to angry fans regarding the issue: “Due to high demand, we have reports of scattered outages from various cable and satellite provides and the online offering. We will delay the start of the main event slightly to allow for systems to get on track. We do not expect a lengthy delay.”

People who had paid $100 to stream the bout on UFC TV website were frustrated to find a 504 gateway timeout error when they tried to access the live event, Mirror Online reported.

The issue was briefly resolved, but the live feed crashed yet again, leading viewers to take to Twitter to mock the delay and the apparent incapability of the organizers to manage the event.

According to Wide World of Sports, the viewers were demanding refunds for the poor service. However, there is no word yet on whether refunds will be doled out for the same.

It was predicted that all existing pay-per-view records generated in the boxing world would be broken when an out-of-retirement legendary boxer faced the biggest star of Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The match was hyped at a steady pace over the months, with both the boxers trash-talking about each other on national television, followed by a world tour.

McGregor’s spirits were not dampened due to the technical issue. A couple of hours before the fight was scheduled to start, he boasted of looking forward to putting Mayweather to sleep.

"I'm going to go out and be myself — free, spontaneous, creative — and paint a beautiful picture," he said, ESPN reported. "I see me truly outclassing this man and putting him to sleep."

The last time that a high profiled match involving Mayweather was delayed was back in 2015 when he was about to face Manny Pacquiao on May 2. Like the McGregor vs Mayweather bout, viewers had been clamoring to see the two fighters get in the ring together, since both of them were regarded as pioneers in the field of boxing.

After the initial delay, the match lived up to its hype, extending through 12 rounds and giving spectators much to cheer about. Mayweather was declared the clear winner in the end, even though his excessive use of defensive techniques inside the ring was criticized by many. The fight was also an enormous success for promoters, garnering $410 million in PPV buys, Sports Illustrated reported.