Is Alex Pereira as big as Conor McGregor? Neck-to-neck PPV gate revenue reveals magnitude of 'Poatan's' UFC fame

UFC icons Alex Pereira and Conor McGregor are both dangerous knockout artists and vastly experienced fighters. Another commonality between them is that they're massive fan favorites in the combat sports community. Speaking of which, the pay-per-view (PPV) gate (attendance revenues) statistics paint an intriguing picture about a comparison of their star powers.

Following his UFC debut in April 2013, McGregor became a combat sports megastar within a couple of years. 'The Notorious' has long been the biggest box office draw in MMA. Similarly, Pereira made his UFC debut in November 2021 and is now one of MMA's biggest stars.

McGregor notably competed in a one-off professional boxing match against all-time great Floyd Mayweather Jr. While McGregor lost via 10th-round TKO, their match became the second-highest-grossing combat sports PPV. McGregor also headlined UFC 229, the highest-grossing UFC PPV.

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Is Alex Pereira as big as Conor McGregor?

The UFC 303 (June 29, 2024) event was to be headlined by a welterweight bout between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler. It would've marked McGregor's first fight since his injury hiatus in July 2021.

Unfortunately, McGregor couldn't compete due to a toe injury. UFC 303 was ultimately headlined by a short-notice rematch between Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka.

Pereira successfully defended his UFC light heavyweight championship by defeating Prochazka via second-round TKO in the headlining fight at UFC 303. Reports indicate that the Pereira-starring UFC 303 earned the fourth-highest ($15.9 million) gate in UFC history.

The UFC 300 (April 2024) event, headlined by Alex Pereira's title defense against Jamahal Hill, had the third-highest ($16.5 million) gate, whereas the second-highest ($17.2 million) gate belonged to the UFC 229 card, headlined by the Khabib Nurmagomedov-Conor McGregor fight in October 2018.

Meanwhile, the highest ($17.7 million) UFC gate ever was UFC 205 in Nov. 2016, headlined by the Eddie Alvarez vs. Conor McGregor 'champion vs. champion super-fight.' Ergo, McGregor still ranks above Pereira in terms of live gate.

Furthermore, in terms of highest-grossing UFC PPVs, Conor McGregor is king. The Alex Pereira-headlined UFC 300 and UFC 303 are viewed as commercial successes, but the UFC hasn't disclosed the PPV buys for either event.

On the contrary, of the top five UFC events that garnered the most PPV buys, four had McGregor in the headlining match. The fifth on that list was UFC 100, headlined by Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, which garnered 1.6 million PPV buys.

The top four all had McGregor as the headliner -- UFC 257 (1.6 million PPV buys), UFC 202 (1.65 million PPV buys), UFC 264 (1.8 million PPV buys), and UFC 229 (2.4 million PPV buys).

Alex Pereira has garnered widespread adulation by replacing Conor McGregor as the new UFC 303 headliner and dominantly defeating fellow enigma, 'The Czech Samurai' Jiri Prochazka. Some have even insinuated that McGregor has been replaced by Pereira as the new face of the UFC. But is he really as big a star, or bigger, than McGregor?

Another interesting point most fans seem to be missing is that the UFC 303 gate was likely considerably boosted by McGregor, the event's original headliner. Perhaps we're all still recovering from the crazy build-up and the cursed thrilling UFC 303 card, and recency bias, too, is swaying public opinion to deem Pereira the bigger star.

Things could change, but as of now, McGregor remains a bigger star than 'Poatan'.