UFC 223 breaks live gate record despite chaotic week

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Bengaluru, April 9: UFC 223: Khabib vs. Iaquinta recorded a live gate of $3 million with a sellout crowd of 17,026 fight fans in attendance at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Saturday night's live gate set a new record as the highest grossing sporting event in the history of Barclays Center. The new mark replaces the arenas previous live gate record of $2.275 million set by UFC with UFC 208: Holm vs. De Randamie, which took place on February 11, 2017.

In the main event, UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated fellow lightweight Al Iaquinta via unanimous decision to become the new UFC lightweight champion.

In the co-main event, the women's strawweight champion Rose Namajunas defeated former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk via unanimous decision to retain the title.

We also witnessed three other bouts on a very much altered main card, where we saw Chris Gruetzemacher stop veteran Joe Lauzon and Zabit Magomedsharipov defeat a very much game Kyle Bochniak. While Renato Moicano took a unanimous decision from Calvin Kattar.

The fight week was filled with a lot of drama as the main event was altered three times, Khabib was orginally scheduled to fight Tony Ferguson who pulled out through injury and was replaced by Max Holloway who was also forced out for the same reason. Meanwhile, Al Iaquinta who lasted five rounds against 'the Eagle' Khabib took the fight on 24hours notice.

The actual drama unfolded when former lightweight champion Conor McGregor threw a large object at a bus amid chaotic scenes at the media day for UFC 223.

Footage emerged on social media on Thursday (April 5), appearing to show McGregor and his entourage storming into the Barclays Center before attempting to attack a bus reportedly filled with fighters from this weekend's card. This eventually led to cancellation of three fights on the card.