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The UFC is not happy with ESPN right now. Over the weekend, fans had issues purchasing UFC 313 on ESPN+ all night. After the fights, UFC CEO Dana White discussed this during his post-fight press conference.
“Oh yeah, it made it to me,” White responded. “They were having problems buying it on ESPN+. I don’t know what happened with their platform tonight. There were a lot of pissed-off people.”
ESPN released a statement to MMA Fighting regarding the technical issues.
“Unfortunately, we experienced a technical issue that impacted purchases of the UFC PPV on ESPN+ shortly after 10pm ET,” ESPN said in the statement. “Our teams identified and resolved the issue, restoring full functionality ahead of the main event. We apologize for the inconvenience and are taking steps to ensure a better experience in the future.”
According to a report from the NY Post, UFC/TKO officials are furious with ESPN over the streaming issues, which could lead to an eventual split between the two companies.
Sources familiar with the TKO Group brass and UFC tell The Post that they are “absolutely furious” with ESPN’s issues hosting Saturday night’s PPV.
The recurring issues could likely put the two companies on the path to an inevitable split as ESPN’s exclusive negotiation rights are set to expire.
Fans have long complained about ESPN+’s streaming issues, but this is the first time that the UFC and TKO have been generally annoyed by the issue.