Bellator 149, derided as its been since last Friday night, accomplished precisely what Bellator set out to accomplish with the Ken Shamrock-Royce Gracie rematch and Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000. Jason Floyd of TheMMAReport.com reported on Monday that the event drew a Bellator record average of 1,964,000 viewers to Spike.
The fights booked were a transparent ratings grab, but it worked, as it out-drew Bellator’s previous best of 1,580,000 average viewers for last June’s Slice-Shamrock event.
Friday’s broadcast was just Bellator’s fourth with over a million average viewers, following June’s Bellator 138, November 2014’s Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar headlined Bellator 131 event, and the Bellator 106 event – originally slated for pay-per-view – headlined by the Eddie Alvarez-Michael Chandler rematch in November of 2013.
Penick’s Analysis: These are the kinds of numbers that will continue to bring these kinds of fights to Spike, unless of course diminishing returns for future freak-show type bouts turns the tide against them. There’s a fanbase for car crashes, and they drew that type of interest on Friday night. But as I wrote over the weekend, what now?
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