The UFC 257 main card, headed by Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, started on ESPN + Pay-Per-View with Marina Rodriguez’s impressive TKO over Amanda Ribas.
Unfortunately, not all fans who spent $ 70 on pay-per-view were able to watch.
[UFC 257 on ESPN+: Buy Conor McGregor fight here]
It is unclear how widespread the stoppage was, but a notable number of MMA fans were complaining on Saturday that ESPN + was not working for them. This included many of the UFC fighters themselves, as well as a former NFL defender of the year and MLB Cy Young winner:
I’m still hoping that this ESPN + app can really work and that I can actually watch the fights I paid for. What a disappointment tonight has been so far. # ufc257 @ESPN @ufc
– Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) January 24, 2021
ESPN issued a statement confirming that it is “aware” of the problem and working to resolve it, according to Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
ESPN is “aware of the problem affecting some users and is working to resolve it,” according to a statement # UFC257
– Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) January 24, 2021
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports was informed that the interruption occurred when 1.3 million viewers tried to tune in at the same time. The outage seemed to affect ESPN + in all areas, not just UFC 257 pay-per-view, and was not limited to just one app or device. The problem was observed on various devices by Yahoo Sports.
The situation occurred days after UFC President Dana White complained about illegal broadcasts of UFC events and threatened streamers with consequences from federal authorities if they broadcast Saturday’s event. One of White’s fighters ended up deciding that the risk was worth it:
Okay, I’m done sending illegal streams!
– Ian Heinisch (@ianheinischmma) January 24, 2021
More coverage of UFC 257 from Yahoo Sports: