Showtime vice president Stephen Espinoza warned fight fans that the massive demand for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor event could cause problems, and that prediction came true Saturday.
The pay-per-view undercard bouts kicked off at 9 p.m. ET, but many users (including Tristar head coach Firas Zahabi and former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Sarah Kaufman) complained that they received a message saying that their UFC Fight Pass purchase could not be processed:
@UFCFightPass Tech support!!! pic.twitter.com/wVXUxihIUw
— Firas Zahabi (@Firas_Zahabi) August 27, 2017
Pretty sure I want my money back! What is happening with the stream from @UFCFightPass?!
— Sarah Kaufman (@mmasarah) August 27, 2017
So it started back up...for 3 min...ugh @UFCFightPass
— Sarah Kaufman (@mmasarah) August 27, 2017
With first fight over, there's no update to the UFC Fight Pass PPV issues. Still mass reports of problems with feed. https://t.co/mAWcbCq0LA
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 27, 2017
Fight pass crashed on me!!!
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) August 27, 2017
The UFC Fight Pass account tweeted out an official statement in response to the uproar:
Due to overwhelming traffic you may be experiencing log in issues. This will be resolved shortly.
— UFC Fight Pass (@UFCFightPass) August 27, 2017
And it wasn’t just the UFC’s online service that was giving people headaches. Other broadcasting services also appear to be having issues with the extraordinary demand:
We r so UPSET with @FrontierCorp / no one answers / calling them for 2 hours! Ordered Fight on Pay per. view / can't get it
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) August 27, 2017
Feel your pain. @XFINITY in Florida killing' us. Leaving my house! https://t.co/B5yRYsOUrZ
— Jon Anik (@Jon_Anik) August 27, 2017
The clash between Mayweather and McGregor is expected to shatter PPV records so viewers can only hope that the traffic problems are resolved by the time the main event rolls around.