UFC 257 proved to be a big hit, with fans flocking to their devices to talk about [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag], [autotag]Dustin Poirier[/autotag] and [autotag]Khabib Nurmagomedov[/autotag] during a huge week of social media exposure for the UFC and their three biggest lightweight stars.
Sports industry analytics specialists Nielsen Sports have produced a report revealing that, despite his defeat to Poirier at UFC 257, McGregor was by some distance the most discussed figure in the sport during the weekend.
McGregor generated a staggering 22.7 million engagements across social media in the build-up to fight night in Abu Dhabi, with the Irishman attracting 1.7 times more mentions than the man who went on to defeat him on fight night.
McGregor’s social media profiles received a hefty bump in numbers, with the Irishman picking up a combined 439,000 new followers. But those numbers represent a noticeable drop in pick-up compared to the 1.4 million new fans he gained ahead of his bout with Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.
It was a hugely encouraging weekend for Poirier on social media, with the Louisiana native gaining a whopping 520,000 new followers across his social media channels. That compares favorably to McGregor’s previous opponent Cerrone, whose numbers grew by 341,000 during his fight with the Dubliner in January 2020. For a man looking to spread the word about his charitable projects, that’s a number that could potentially translate to big contributions for his charity The Good Fight Foundation. It might even help him sell a few extra bottles of his Louisiana hot sauce, too.
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As you might expect, the event was also a huge social media win for the UFC’s official accounts, with Nielsen reporting that the brand generated almost 43 million engagements and close to 100,000 mentions throughout fight week.
U.K. managing director of Nielsen Sports, Spencer Nolan, said, “Conor McGregor has once again shown that his popularity on social media continues to remain at unprecedented levels, despite spending a year out of action. Online conversation centered on the fact that McGregor lost, and not that Poirier won. This tells us that, win or lose, he remains a pivotal character that has transcended an entire sport.”
In addition to talk about the McGregor-Poirier fight at UFC 257, there was also a huge amount of social chatter about the much-debated potential rematch between McGregor and UFC lightweight champion Nurmagomedov, with Nielsen identifying 12,000 separate discussions simultaneously mentioning the two fighters over the course of just three days.
“Analyzing the conversation across social media during fight week in more detail, it’s clear there is a demand from fans to see a rematch between McGregor and Nurmagomdov,” said Nolan.
“Driven by Khabib’s presence in the UFC’s own channel content during fight week, we can see that conversation was rife regarding the promotion’s two biggest assets meeting again.”
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