Most of this fights drawing power doesn't come from Khabib. He's bigger than Eddie or Jose, maybe even Nate, sure. That might help a little bit, but make no mistake about it, this PPV is all about Conor! People want to see Conor lose in MMA, and they think they've finally got their guy to do it. Not just beat him on short notice, and come back to lose, but actually demolish him 10/10 times.
However, most of this PPV draw is the fact that Conor is returning to the cage for the first time in 2 years, and taking on an undefeated monster that nobody has beat. People also want to see Conor win and achieve greatness. He's bigger than he ever has been after the Mayweather fight. "Despite not getting any promotion" this has been the most talked about MMA fight in history.
Conor's next three PPVs against Khabib, Nate, and GSP will all do over 2 million. I predict the GSP fight could do over 3, maybe even 4. GSP can carry a PPV fight on his own to a million. Conor's never had anything close to that in a PPV partner outside of Floyd where he did nearly 5 million with streaming issues. Conor is about to become the new PPV king.
You are spot on my brother
The opponent doesnt matter
Conor sells no matter who the opponent is
It's the Conor show. Its all because of Conor. "Its Conor's world and we are just living in it"
Most people don't even know who Khabib is. They just know that Conor is coming back to fight some "Russian boogieman"
Khabib has little to nothing to do with it
Conor will always sell because of Conor...but like you said, if you added a Gsp as his opponent...it would be out of this world ..
Gsp averages 850k a PPV.
So any Conor vs Gsp fight that does massive numbers would still be soley due to Conor and Conor only
But Conor having an opponent like Gsp is better then any other opponent he could face
Especially if Conor beats Khabib, the hypetrain for Conor vs Gsp will take off like a rocket
I like your predictions and feel they are spot on. You are a great poster.
Here are my predictions
Conor does 2.3 million buys for UFC 229. Conor coming off all the hype and praise from the Floyd fight. Conor's big return to the UFC.
If Conor beats Khabib and then fights Gsp, I have no doubt a Conor fight (against Gsp) would be Conor pulling in 3 to 4 millions buys (like you said)
Forget anyone in MMA ever coming close, Conor will be surpassing Floyd for all time combat sports PPV buys IMO