UFC 236 was a historical event for multiple reasons, including the fact that both Israel Adesanya and Dustin Poirier walked away with interim championships.
There were fans who apparently had some issues with the event on ESPN+ and UFC President Dana White admits there were hiccups in the process.
“Not too long ago, we were in pay-per-view negotiations and we didn’t like the way they were going, so what you don’t ever want to do is to give us a little time to think outside the box,” White said at the UFC 236 post-fight press conference (via Marc Ramondi of MMA Fighting). “So we started talking to ESPN, the talks moved really fast and we struck a deal with ESPN. And we knew we had to pull this fight off very soon, on both sides. And we knew that there were gonna be some hiccups. Hopefully, there aren’t. Hopefully, you can get everything dialed in. The next one will be much better. The next one, you’ll be able to purchase right through the app. It’s gonna get easier, it’s gonna get better.”
The event was also the first to have the pay-per-view card streamed exclusively on ESPN+, which all pay-per-view cards will do going forward.
White also expects ESPN to fix all the problems in the end, making the experience better for the fans going forward.
“I’m not just saying this because I’m in business with these guys,” White said. “You know, you’ve seen me in business with guys that I don’t exactly love being in business with. It happens sometimes. These guys are so good at what they do. They’re so good, they’re so on top of everything. We’ll get the problems that people had tonight fixed. And it’ll only get better.”
ESPN will get their next chance to fix the hiccups this May with UFC 237, which is going to be headlined by Rose Namajunas defending the women’s strawweight title against Jessica Andrade.
