Conor McGregor (photo via ESPN)

By FCF Staff

UFC 200 may have set attendance and attendance records for a UFC card in Las Vegas, but according to Conor McGregor, the July 9th card “bombed”.

Originally, McGregor was scheduled to rematch Nate Diaz at the event, but after he refused to commit to all of the card’s media obligations, the UFC pulled him from the card. Now the two will fight again this Saturday at UFC 202.

Since UFC 200 went down, it’s been reported that the card failed to meet the pay-per-view sales that UFC 100, UFC 193 and UFC 196 generated (the latter card featured Diaz vs. McGregor 1). In addition, it should be noted that UFC 200 was hosted by the T-Mobile Arena, which is a new, 20,000 seat venue that the promotion had yet to hold a card in.

In advance of UFC 202, McGregor spoke with GQ magazine, and while discussing UFC 200, the Irish star said:

“People spend a lot of money to come see me fight from my hometown, and they had already purchased tickets, so I wanted to get back on that card. They weren’t having it. They didn’t put me in the card—that’s okay—and the card bombed. I was ringside. The fights weren’t great, but now here we are.”

UFC 202 will also be hosted by the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In the co-headliner, Anthony Johnson will take on fellow light-heavyweight contender, Glover Teixeira.