UFC Fight Night 268 drew an announced attendance of 16,454 at Arena CDMX on Saturday, February 28, making it the first UFC event held in Mexico in three years to fail to sell out. Roughly 3,500 seats were left empty, and the UFC declined to announce a live gate figure — an unusual omission that further underscored the shortfall.
Chilean MMA reporter Rodrigo Del Campo González was among the first to report the streak’s end, noting that previous UFC Mexico events had sold out consistently since at least 2023.
The non-sellout came despite the card being headlined by Mexico’s own Brandon Moreno, a two-time UFC Flyweight Champion fighting in front of his home crowd. Moreno’s original opponent, top-ranked contender Asu Almabayev, withdrew with an injury weeks before the event, forcing the UFC to slot in unranked Englishman Lone’er Kavanagh as a late replacement.
Kavanagh ultimately delivered one of the night’s biggest storylines, defeating Moreno via unanimous decision in the five-round main event and claiming the biggest win of his career, per the BBC. Moreno falls to 23-10-2 with the loss.
A contributin factors to the attendance dip could be the civil unrest in Mexico in the days preceding the event, stemming from cartel-related violence in the Jalisco region following the death of cartel leader El Mencho.
