Last Saturday night, UFC 313 experienced technical problems during its pay-per-view broadcast. Fans and fighters expressed their frustration as they tried to purchase the event on ESPN+.
Social media was filled with complaints from viewers who couldn’t watch the main event, where Magomed Ankalaev won against Alex Pereira by unanimous decision.
Sources inside MMA Fighting reported that UFC executives were very angry about the situation, especially since pay-per-view is a major source of income for the company. UFC itself has not officially commented.
UFC CEO Dana White briefly mentioned the issues at the UFC 313 post-fight press conference. However, he said he didn’t know why the technical problems occurred at that time.
Dana White acknowledged the problems, saying he was aware of people having trouble buying the event on ESPN+. He admitted he didn’t know what went wrong with their platform and that many people were upset.
ESPN released a statement to MMA Fighting about the UFC 313 pay-per-view issues and the customer anger caused by problems with both buying and watching the event on their streaming service.
ESPN stated that they had a technical issue affecting UFC PPV purchases on ESPN+ shortly after 10pm ET. They claimed their teams found and fixed the problem, restoring full service before the main event. ESPN apologized for the inconvenience and said they are working to improve the experience for the future.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that ESPN planned to make UFC 313 available to ESPN+ subscribers for free. However, this doesn’t solve the issue for those who couldn’t watch the event live.
This is the second week in a row that Disney-owned streaming services have had problems. Recently, there were complaints about streaming issues during the 2025 Academy Awards on Hulu. Now, ESPN+ has had similar issues with UFC 313, and the timing is particularly bad.
UFC is currently in exclusive negotiations with ESPN about broadcast rights, which end in 2025. This exclusive period lasts until April 15, after which UFC can receive offers from other companies. In 2018, UFC signed a seven-year deal with ESPN that included pay-per-view broadcasts, exclusively available through ESPN+.
Users have often complained about technical issues with ESPN+’s streaming service during UFC events. This could be negative for ESPN as they try to keep UFC, which has been a key attraction for ESPN+ since it launched.
Many broadcasters are interested in UFC rights, especially now that UFC is very popular, with strong ticket sales, sponsorships, and merchandise sales. Before the 2018 ESPN deal, UFC was close to signing with Amazon Prime Video, and companies like Netflix might also bid for the broadcast rights after April 15.
While TKO Group Holdings executive Mark Shapiro has praised the relationship with ESPN, the technical problems that affected UFC 313 could have significant consequences.
