Conor McGregor predicts UFC 205 to set pay-per-view record: 'It will break the 2-million mark'

UFC champ Conor McGregor is making all kinds of predictions ahead of his UFC 205 main event showdown with Eddie Alvarez.

McGregor (20-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC), the UFC featherweight champ who will challenge Alvarez (28-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) for lightweight gold in the UFC 205 headliner, has already boldly forecasted a first-round knockout for the fight. Now he’s made his guess for pay-per-view numbers, and once again “The Notorious” said he’s expecting to set records.

“I’m almost certain we’re talking the 2-million mark,” McGregor told MMAjunkie. “I feel it will break the 2-million mark. That’s what I’d like, and then go from there.”

UFC 205 takes place Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

McGregor, No. 1 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, said UFC 205 has all the necessary ingredients to draw a historic buy rate for an MMA event. His most recent fight, a majority decision victory over Nate Diaz at UFC 202 in August, reportedly broke the UFC pay-per-view record with 1.65 million buys.

From McGregor’s perspective, UFC 202, which marked a rematch of his only octagon loss against Diaz at UFC 196 in March, was not given nearly the promotional support of his upcoming fight with Alvarez.

Moreover, McGregor is aware of the historic nature of the event. Not only is he attempting to become the first simultaneous two-division titleholder for the UFC at the expense of No. 1-ranked lightweight Alvarez, but there are also two other championship fights scheduled as well as an abundance of other quality matchups.

To top it all off, UFC 205 marks the UFC’s return to New York after more than 20 years. For all those reasons and more, McGregor said the recipe is right for the most purchased fight card in the UFC’s existence.

“(It will break the record) 100 percent – I think the money is there,” McGregor said. “For UFC 202, they backed it with no money. UFC 200 is where the advertising dollars went. UFC 202 was worth double what they spent in advertising dollars. UFC 202 broke the pay-per-view record with very little push. A very, very weak undercard. Now you have me, you have New York, you have history and you have many factors. They’re pushing the advertising dollars on it.”

The latest UFC 205 card includes:

• Lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez vs. featherweight champ Conor McGregor – for lightweight title
• Champ Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson – for welterweight title
• Champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz – for strawweight title
• Yoel Romero vs. Chris Weidman
• Donald Cerrone vs. Kelvin Gastelum
• Raquel Pennington vs. Miesha Tate
• Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
• Michael Johnson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
• Rashad Evans vs. Tim Kennedy
• Tim Boetsch vs. Rafael Natal
• Thiago Alves vs. Jim Miller
• Lyman Good vs. Belal Muhammad
• Liz Carmouche vs. Katlyn Chookagian

For more on UFC 205, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.