"This seems criminal" - UFC 297's alleged ticket prices have fans fuming

UFC 297 marks the promotion's first pay-per-view in Toronto, Ontario, Canada since UFC 231. Furthermore, it will be the promotion's opening pay-per-view for 2024 and will be headlined by Sean Strickland, who will defend his middleweight title for the first time, against Dricus du Plessis.

Other prominent matchups have been revealed, including a women's bantamweight title bout between Mayra Bueno Silva and Raquel Pennington. Furthermore, there's also a rematch between former light heavyweight champion Jan Błachowicz and a returning Aleksandar Rakić, who injured himself during the pair's first bout.

Unfortunately, the UFC 297 ticket prices have left fans on Reddit disappointed. A screenshot from Ticketmaster was shared on a Reddit thread, apparently showing the lowest ticket prices for the event being $629.75.

Nothing has ever made me feel more justified stealing the PPV byu/ColdstoneSteveIceCrm inufc

One fan even described the ticket prices as criminal:

"The ticket prices are criminal."

This was echoed on another comment, one that also criticized the UFC's controversial pay structure:

"Ufc ticket prices have always been high, but this seems criminal. You mean to tell me after the price of tickets and ppv, there are still fighters making 12k to fight…"

While UFC 297 features several noteworthy fights, including Sean Strickland's first middleweight title defense, one fan claimed that it doesn't justify the ticket price:

"It’s not worth it at all. $600 and then food, alcohol, and possibly a hotel on top of it. Ain’t no one paying 1k to watch from the nosebleeds when you can watch for free on the couch"

Another fan even implied that they will stream the card illegally, quoting one of Dana White's past threats to apprehend any illegal streamers:

"We got one. All he has to do is turn it on Saturday and we got you f***er"

A collage of fan reactions can be seen below:

Fan reactions

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What was UFC 297's originally planned main event?

While the UFC 297 headliner is now Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis for the middleweight title, that wasn't always the planned main event for the card. Alexander Volkanovski was initially expected to defend his featherweight crown against Ilia Topuria.

Unfortunately, the Australian great stepped in on short-notice against Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 and was brutally knocked out in round one. Without the medical clearance to fight as early as January, his title bout with Topuria was pushed back to UFC 298.