If you made the last-minute decision to catch UFC 313 on Saturday night but instead spent hours battling technical issues, you weren’t alone.
A decent chunk of U.S. viewers attempting to buy the pay-per-view and watch fighters battle it out in the cage instead found themselves battling a technical outage, preventing their purchase from going through.
The issue affected enough customers that distributor ESPN has released a statement and offered a replay of the show for free to some subscribers.
Viewers who tried to order UFC 313 past the 10 p.m. ET main card start time experienced technical errors, per an ESPN source who spoke with The Athletic.
The issues, which were so significant that UFC CEO Dana White said he heard about them on Saturday night, have caused a $79.99 event to instead be free to watch via replay on ESPN+.
“Unfortunately, we experienced a technical issue that impacted purchases of the UFC PPV on ESPN+ shortly after 10pm ET,” ESPN told MMA Fighting.
“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.”
ESPN told The Athletic that no rebates would be offered for the issues, as those affected by the outage weren’t charged for the PPV.
The technical problems come at a crucial time for the sports network’s relationship with the top MMA promoter.
UFC and Disney/ESPN are currently in an exclusive negotiating window for a media rights deal which would begin in 2026. ESPN has been the exclusive home for domestic UFC live events since 2019, including PPV broadcasts.
It has become increasingly likely in recent months that the two parties could let the exclusivity period expire in mid-April, opening up other streamers and broadcast networks to sign with the UFC.
UFC is reportedly seeking more than $1 billion for their next domestic rights deal, per a report earlier this year from Bloomberg.
A New York Post report stated that those within UFC’s parent company TKO Group Holdings were “absolutely furious” at the tech problems.
