Though on different nights this past weekend and not a head to head comparison, Bellator MMA scored a minor ratings victory on Spike over the UFC’s offering on Fox Sports 1.
According to a report from Jason Floyd of TheMMAReport.com, Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 77 event averaged 757,000 viewers, below the 814,000 average who tuned in for Friday’s Bellator 145 event.
Additionally, the peak viewership came in at 875,000 viewers during the night’s main event between Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson, below the peak of 1,048,000 for Bellator, which came during the second bout of the night between Bobby Lashley and James Thompson.
Penick’s Analysis: It ultimately doesn’t mean a ton, though the UFC number could be construed to be a bit low with Vitor Belfort in the main event. That said, it was deemed as a bit of an unnecessary fight to begin with. Of course, for Bellator it’s not necessarily great that they peaked early on and lost viewers from there, but they had more eyeballs on them overall, which is certainly a good thing for them on the weekend. Still, it’s not indicative of much more than having more fans watching on a random Friday event than a random Saturday event.
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