After massive technical difficulties that resulted in many fans being unable to watch UFC 313 live, ESPN+ has decided to make the event free for everyone.
As the pay-per-view event kicked off, we noticed something strange going on: more and more fans chiming in online that they were unable to get their ESPN+ stream of UFC 313 to work. Now that’s nothing new: every week you’ll witness a small rotating group of fans gnash their teeth and cry in frustration as the janky online platform fails to work.
This was different. This time there were a lot of people, including many UFC fighters unable to get the event to stream.
“Just bought the PPV and can’t see?” bantamweight Chito Vera tweeted. “Come the f— on, ESPN!”
“Hey ESPN+ you charged my card twice for UFC 313 put I can’t get it playing,” Frankie Edgar posted. “Get your s— in order let’s goooo!”
The problem lasted deep into the broadcast and was addressed by UFC CEO Dana White at the post-fight press conference.
“Yeah, there were problems buying it on ESPN+,” he said. “I don’t know what happened with their platform tonight, but yeah … there are a lot of pissed off people.”
As usual, fans were left with no feedback or information during the outing. But ESPN+ did get in touch with media outlets on Sunday morning to address the issue. They’ve announced that anyone with an ESPN+ account can now log into the service to watch UFC 313 for free.
That’s a little bit of a lame solution considering this is SPORTS we’re talking about and the fight results have been plastered all over the internet for the better part of a day. And while we saw many people complain that they were charged and unable to watch the event, an ESPN+ source told The Athletic “Anybody trying to purchase the PPV during the technical outage would not have been charged … Hence, ESPN is not offering any rebates.”
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You won’t see ESPN+ or anyone involved even utter the word ‘refund.’ Many fans who have bought UFC pay-per-views only for the event not to play have said they were forced to make chargeback requests with their credit card company.
It’s not exactly a good look for ESPN+, especially with the UFC preparing to ship around their various broadcast right packages at the end of 2025. One of those packages is pay-per-view events, which ESPN+ has held exclusive rights to in the U.S. since 2019.
Does the UFC really care that ESPN’s streaming platform is an unreliable mess that has undoubtedly driven many past-paying fans into the arms of pirate streaming services? It’s nice to imagine Dana White screaming into a phone, turning cherry red in the face, demanding they fix their garbage service, but we have our doubts.
Small consolation: if you have an ESPN+ account and want to watch UFC 313, it’s available for free right now. If you missed the card, we’d suggest tuning in for Ruffy vs. Green and Gaethje vs. Fiziev.