UFC 257: ESPN+ App Issues Anger Fight Fans, Sparking Calls for a Refund

Saturday night, many fight fans shelled out a hefty amount of money to watch Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 257. These fans hoped to see a “war” between the two veteran contenders, as well as a potential knockout. What they didn’t want, however, was a string of issues within the ESPN+ app that led to them missing important moments and wild finishes.

There were several people voicing their frustrations on Twitter during Saturday night’s stacked schedule of fights. Many couldn’t connect to the fight within the app and only saw an error screen for much of the night. Others had issues with ESPN not accepting their purchase receipt. Several did ultimately connect in time to watch Poirier stun the world with a second-round knockout victory, but they continued to tweet about getting a refund.

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“I’ve tried logging into ESPNPlus at least 50 times. Cut my PS4 on and off at least 5 times. Dana am I supposed to not watch the fights or find a stream? Never done it in my life for UFC event but this is trash. Losing millions,” wrote one upset UFC fan.

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“You know what’s crazy guys? I also paid for this trash stream that isn’t working but it just so happens that the illegal ones are working just fine,” one person commented. Several kept comparing the differences between the legal and illegal methods of watching UFC 257 on Saturday night, using the comparison as a reason to call the streaming app terrible.

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“UFC PPV [ESPN MMA] [ESPN] is trash! Taking people’s money and not ensuring fight is available, but y’all want to jail folks that stream?” one angry fan tweeted on Saturday night. Many others experiencing similar issues with the app were equally vocal with their criticism.

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“Dana White] Can you dump ESPN+ such a trash service. Hassle with every PPV. Why not stream on UFC Fight pass, same idea. Make people subscribe, buy the fight, stream it there. No middle man, pure profits for UFC. Simple,” another fan commented. There were several trying to figure out a way to avoid similar issues for future PPV events.

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“I buy every card and it never works [ESPN Plus Help] is just a trash service the illegal streams are 100x more reliable,” another person commented on Sunday morning. Several reached out to the ESPN+ help desk in an effort to resolve their issues and get a refund for the fight. Others just tweeted at the account and voiced their frustrations about the fight.

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“I would like my $70 back,” Texans defender JJ Watt tweeted during the fight. He was one of the many struggling to catch all of the action on Saturday night. Although he later said that the stream began working, so he took back his refund request. 

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“espn plus ufc 257 worst ever. Buffering every 10 seconds. Want my money back,” one viewer wrote on Twitter. Several others agreed and said that they also experienced issues with the stream constantly buffering.