Nate Diaz (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

The consensus was that UFC 196 was going to be a massive event for the promotion, and it looks like that was indeed the case.

Last Saturday’s card featured Conor McGregor taking on Nate Diaz, and Holly Holm battling Miesha Tate in the headliners. Initially, the card was supposed to see McGregor fight lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos. The latter went down with a broken foot, however, and the UFC brought in Nate Diaz.

Many people believed that Diaz’s entrance wouldn’t hurt sales, and others argued that it would in fact improve them. Dana White recently appeared on the Max & Marcellus show, and while doing so, he was asked whether the UFC has trouble creating new stars. To that, the UFC President relayed that the company broke “so many records” at UFC 196, and that it was the biggest PPV the company has done. (quote via Bloody Elbow.com):

“People have been telling me ‘what are you going to do when Chuck Liddell retires?’ then ‘what are you going to do when GSP is gone?’ There is always new great fighters coming down the pipeline,” White said. “In this sport, we put the best against the best, or sometimes we do crazy stuff like on Saturday night, where Conor McGregor says ‘I want to fight Nate Diaz. I’ll fight him at 170.”

“These are things that capture people’s imaginations. That is why the thing does 1.5 million PPV buys. That is because it captures the imaginations of fight fans.”

UFC 196 was hosted by the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.