Dana White reacts to lower than predicted gate for UFC 170

When UFC president Dana White rolled up to the podium at the UFC 170 post-fight press conference he announced that the card headlined by UFC women's champion Ronda Rousey successfully defending her title against Sara McMann, had brought 10,217 fans to the Mandalay Bay Events Center, pulling in a gate of $1,558,870. It was a surprise to hear those figures considering the number White had thrown out just days before.

After the pre-fight press conference, White took part in a media scrum and said, "She's (UFC 170 headliner Rousey) going to do a $2 million gate. She did $1.3 million in her last fight." White added that, "not many" tickets remained available at that time for UFC 170.

A glance at Ticketmaster's website on Saturday morning told a different story, as there were plenty of seats available the morning of the event:

Comparing UFC 170's numbers to the 25 other UFC events held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, UFC 170 came in at No. 19 in attendance, beating out five other numbered events (UFC's 64, 48, 58, 33, and 143) and two Ultimate Fighter Finale Fight Cards (Seasons 17 and 18). The best drawing UFC card at the arena was UFC 47, which drew 11,437 fans. The live gate put the event at No. 18 for Mandalay Bay Events Center. The top gate was the $5,128,490 brought in by UFC 100.

White, who not long ago declared that Rousey was the biggest star the UFC ever had, seemed unfazed by the numbers being lower than he had initially predicted. Speaking at the post-fight scrum, a laughing White said, "When he just handed me the thing right now I said, ‘Are you f---ing kidding me, it's 1.5 (million)?'

When pushed on why the numbers were lower, White responded, "I just found out. It's a good question though." The UFC president then added, "Tell me, in the history of combat sports, two women that did what tonight does. If we do 750 pay-per-view buys, it's still the biggest women's fight ever, and this gate, it's still a quarter million dollars more than her last gate."

The gate for that event, UFC 157 was $1,3590,191 with 13,257 fans going through the turnstiles at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. Rousey defended her title on that night by submitting Liz Carmouche at the 4:49 mark of Round 1.