The post-fight brawl that unexpectedly broke an Independent record

When I woke on Sunday morning, I had one thing on my mind: Who triumphed in the previous night’s McGregor vs Khabib fight? It was an unusual thought for me to have. I’d be lying if I said I was a fan of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), or any professional fighting really, but the hype over the previous few days had been inescapable.

Grabbing my phone, I opened my app detailing how many people are reading articles on The Independent website. What I saw made me sit bolt upright.

Tens of thousands of readers were flocking to articles about what had happened, with huge numbers watching the video of Khabib Nurmagomedov leaping from the Octagon to fight McGregor’s coaches while the defeated Irishman was mobbed inside the cage. There was significant interest from all around the world in this story and it was obvious why.

The fight was over when this event occurred. These are supposed to be two professionals; they’re supposed to play by the rules. Haven’t they ever seen Million Dollar Baby?

I was one of the many millions of people shocked by the footage and my reaction to the story was reflected in our audience too. The video of the post-fight brawl was played many millions of times on our site – it was the story of the day by a country mile and was ruthlessly dominant.

In total, videos on our website about the fight, and the brawl that occurred afterwards, amassed unprecedented numbers. We racked up more video views on Sunday than any day in our website’s history.

To put that level of audience interest in some context, the previous day when Banksy shredded his painting that had just sold for £1m, the video of the moment that happened was watched mere tens of thousands of times.

Banksy, he’s a pretty famous guy. During my first week as a reporter in Bristol in 2014, the street artist’s Girl with the Pierced Eardrum was painted. We all found out about it late in the evening. Everyone rushed down to Spike Island to film the new mural and speak to the owner of the building he had blessed with his spray cans

Then, a year or so later, he opened up Dismaland. I remember the press release dropping in my inbox; it was late at night. We all knew it was coming, but I could feel the excitement nonetheless.

In the battle for audience attention last weekend, though, there was one clear winner and a certain graffiti artist from the West Country was nowhere to be seen. Nurmagomedov may have defeated McGregor, but when it came to media dominance, together they were unbeatable.

Yours,

Tom Richell

Video editor