Dana White: UFC 254 Trending to Be Promotion’s Top-Selling Pay-Per-View Ever

There’s still a few days left before Saturday, but UFC 254 is already generating a lot of interest.

“This thing’s trending off the charts for us right now,” UFC president Dana White told TMZ Sports. “It’s the end of Tuesday going into Wednesday…On Monday, this thing was trending to be the biggest fight we’ve ever had. Not Thursday, not Friday — Monday.”

UFC 254 takes place at the Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and is headlined by a highly-anticipated lightweight title unification bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje. Nurmagomedov’s victory over Conor McGregor at UFC 229 in October 2018 holds the pay-per-view record, with a reported 2.4 million buys.

However, even White admitted that things could change by the weekend, and sales could be affected by the fact that the main card begins at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT in the United States.

“It’s trending bigger than that [UFC 229] right now,” White said. “Will the trend hold? One of the things that is a big negative for us is it is not in primetime at home. It is hard to message that to people. This thing starts in the afternoon.”

Also generating buzz this week is Nurmagomedov’s interest in a showdown with former welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St. Pierre if he defeats Gaethje. A lot has to happen before Nurmagomedov vs. GSP becomes a reality, and it’s a matchup that has fallen through in the past.

"I'd be interested in talking about it,” White said. “Just because that's what Khabib wants doesn't mean that fight can be made. I mean there's just so many things that have to come into play for that fight to happen.”