A staggering number of people tuned in to watch McGregor v Mendes two weeks ago

They didn't appear in an official statement, nor did they leak from an executive.

Rather, the pay-per-view numbers from UFC 189 were just stumbled upon when reading Conor McGregor's official fighter biography on UFC.com. According to the promotion, the most publicised event in UFC history drew 1 million pay-per-view buys which puts it on an illustrious list of just nine events to have done so. McGregor is credited as being one of the main reasons for the card's popularity as the Irishman has essentially become the biggest draw in the sport alongside women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. The July 11 event is still quite a way of the UFC's number one show in terms of pay-per-views which was the historic UFC 100 card featuring Brock Lesnar v Frank Mir and Georges St-Pierre v Thiago Alves which earned a record buyrate of 1.6 million. Still though, for a last minute opponent change, that's not bad going for Conor and Co.