Technical issues plagued UFC 313 this past Saturday night as fans and fighters voiced their frustrations while attempting to purchase the pay-per-view through ESPN+.
Social media exploded after potential viewers realized they were unable to watch the event headlined by Magomed Ankalaev’s unanimous decision win over Alex Pereira.
While UFC declined to comment on the situation, sources told MMA Fighting that executives were “furious” over the situation, especially with pay-per-view still serving as one of the key financial drivers for the company.
UFC CEO Dana White briefly addressed the problems during the UFC 313 post-fight press conference, although at the time he didn’t have any answers about why the technical issues happened.
“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 issued a statement to MMA Fighting regarding the UFC 313 pay-per-view and the angry customers lashing out due to issues with both purchasing and watching the event through the streaming platform.
“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.”
On Sunday, the New York Times reported that ESPN planned to make the UFC 313 card available to ESPN+ subscribers at no additional charge, although that doesn’t solve the problem of users who were unable to watch the event as it happened live.
This is the second week in a row where streaming issues have plagued Disney-owned brands after there were complaints over viewing the 2025 Academy Awards, which aired on Hulu. Now ESPN+ has been hit with the issues surrounding UFC 313 and the timing couldn’t be worse.
The UFC is currently in an exclusive negotiating period with ESPN over the company’s broadcast rights deal, which expires at the end of 2025. The exclusive negotiating period runs through April 15 and then UFC can start fielding offers from other potential suitors. In 2018, the promotion signed with ESPN on a seven-year deal that also included PPV broadcasts, which are available to purchase exclusively through ESPN+.
Unfortunately, users have frequently complained about technical issues plaguing the streaming service throughout the time UFC has been airing events on ESPN. That could spell bad news for ESPN as the sports-specific network attempts to hold onto the UFC, which was one of the main attractions for ESPN+ when the streaming service first launched.
There are no shortage of potential broadcast partners vying for the UFC’s rights, especially at a time when the promotion is hotter than ever when it comes to ticket sales, sponsorships and merchandising. Prior to signing a deal with ESPN in 2018, the UFC was very close to inking a contract with Amazon Prime Video and other players like Netflix could potentially get into the bidding to land the valuable broadcast rights after the exclusive negotiating window expires on April 15.
While key executives like TKO Group Holdings president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro have praised the working relationship with ESPN in the past, the technical issues that effectively doomed UFC 313 could have far reaching consequences.
