Reports claim UFC 259: Jan Blachowicz vs Israel Adesanya failed to crack 1 million buys

Jan Blachowicz faced Israel Adesanya in a much anticipated matchup of champions at UFC 259. It was expected to be one of most exciting fights in recent times, as Blachowicz put the UFC light-heavyweight title on the line against UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

However, new reports have cast doubt on how anticipated the fight actually was. MMA journalist Aaron Bronsteter has recently revealed the number of PPVs that UFC 259 sold. Brontester took to Twitter to reveal that, as per John Ourand from Sports Business Journal, UFC 259 sold 600,000 PPVs on ESPN+ in the US and 200,000 internationally.

Per @Ourand_SBJ, UFC 259 sold 600,000 PPVs on ESPN+ in the US and 200,000 internationally.

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) March 11, 2021

With three championship bouts stacked on the main card, it is surprising that UFC 259 failed to cross the one-million buys mark. With only 800,000 PPV sales, the event is a long way away from the UFC's top 10 highest selling pay-per-views, seven of which featured Conor Mcgregor.

McGregor's recent loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 sold a whopping 1.6 million PPVs, the second highest in UFC history. This record equals McGregor's second outing against Nate Diaz at UFC 202 and is only second to his loss against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 which sold a record-breaking 2.4 million PPVs.

UFC 259 held a few surprises for fans

UFC 259 had arguably the most stacked card in the promotion's history, with three UFC titles up for grabs. The action started from the preliminary card as Kai Kara France knocked out Rogerio Bontorin, only to run back to his downed opponent and pretend to hit him during the victory lap.

DO. NOT. BLINK. 🤯CHAOS at the APEX as 🇳🇿 @KaiKaraFrance drops Bontorin to close the show! #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/BtabcqGMtd

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) March 7, 2021

Jan Blachowicz also pulled off an upset of sorts with a unanimous decision victory against Israel Adesanya. However, it was Petr Yan's title defense at bantamweight that attracted the most attention.

With four UFC champions and three titles on the line, the bantamweight division was the only one to see a new champion crowned at the event. While ahead in the fight on two scorecards, Petr Yan surprised fans by hitting a downed Aljamain Sterling with an illegal knee that looked deliberate. Petr Yan was disqualified and a UFC title changed hands due to disqualification by an illegal strike for the first time in history.