High UFC ticket prices and Dana White not essentially lowering them at all has been a bone of contention among MMA fans for quite some time now. One can still justify the super-high rates for Noche UFC since The Sphere was included and it was a $20 million+ production and Apex events include a lot of hospitality which is why you’re expected to pay the premium. However, the PPVs in big arenas don’t offer either of these things leading to demands to make these events more accessible by lowering costs.

Derek Brunson has sparked the latest debate on UFC ticket prices. He shared a screenshot of the prices for UFC 318 on X and stated that the UFC should be offering at least two pivotal title fights such as Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall and Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria. Of course, there is no real hope behind any of these fights being confirmed for UFC 318.

To Brunson’s surprise, the tickets for the sections 302 and 329 of the arena, that are the farthest from the Octagon, cost over $716. It is safe to assume that the ticket prices for better seats with hospitality is a lot higher than this.

This is not a new trend at all, unfortunately. In the last 20 years, the average UFC ticket price has increased by over 4000% and even if you plan to watch an event digitally, a PPV will set you back by at least $80. The problem isn’t exclusive to the US either as fans had heavy complaints about the prices for UFC London.

Ahead of the Noche UFC event last year, the UFC was forced to reduce the prices for the tickets due to less sales. Interestingly, UFC fighters have to purchase their own tickets for events and the likes of Israel Adesanya have admitted to the rates being high for an average viewer.

So it looks like there is some sort of trouble in paradise, with fans and fighters alike wondering why the UFC charges so much for pay-per-view events. And the skepticism has extended to the upcoming UFC 316 card as well.

Dana White expected to incur losses at UFC 316 due to high ticket prices

It is being speculated that UFC 316 won’t sell much because the main card, apart from the main event, is lackluster and fans won’t be willing to pay the high ticket prices for it. UFC 315 might have been THE wake-up-call for White to do something about the UFC ticket prices.

Reports indicated that the PPV buys were abysmal and a large amount of tickets were sold in the final days leading up to the event. And it is important to note that UFC 315 was a fairly stacked card, featuring two title fights alongside big names like Jose Aldo, Alexa Grasso, and Benoit Saint-Denis.

Montreal has also consistently been an exciting venue for the UFC. Also, MMA is quite popular in the country thanks to Georges St-Pierre, one the sport’s biggest and most skilled stars, hailing from . So, the disappointment from UFC 315 might have a lot to do due to the high ticket prices, that were called out quite a lot by Canadian fans.

Having said that, White has stated that ESPN has more authority over ticket prices than him, which is why he can’t necessarily help the fans. So far, he’s only expressed dissatisfaction on the rising ticket prices but the real-life situation for the fans remain the same.