Bellator tops UFC in weekend ratings by 96,000 viewers

[La Paix]

Paul Daley
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting


Bellator got a weekend ratings victory over UFC, but neither side did blow-away numbers this past weekend.

Saturday's Bellator show from San Jose, Calif., a loaded show featuring former UFC stars Benson Henderson, Roy Nelson and Lorenz Larkin, averaged 598,000 viewers on Spike TV. The night before, a UFC event from Saitama, Japan, with far weaker star power, headlined by Ovince Saint Preux vs. Yushin Okami, averaged 502,000 viewers, airing on FXX instead of the usual FS 1.

The Bellator show was on Saturday night, a more traditional night for big MMA events, but was also going against a plethora of college football games, on FOX, ABC, FS 1, ESPN and ESPN 2, a NASCAR race on NBC Sports Network as well as a replay of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight on HBO. The boxing replay did 726,000 viewers, while the live Luke Campbell vs. Jorge Linares fight on HBO did 687,000 viewers. Aside from a late-night Hawaii-Wyoming football game on ESPN 2, Bellator did not beat any of the football games or NASCAR.

Bellator tops UFC in weekend ratings by 96,000 viewers

 

[Clappin'Daddys]

Bad nights for both at the end of the day.

Bellator in particular went up against two NCAA games and the Canelo/ggg replay. Stiff competition

 

[TheEmperorRises]

Bad nights for both at the end of the day.

Bellator in particular went up against two NCAA games and the Canelo/ggg replay. Stiff competition

Main event between Benson and Patricky peaked at 966,000. Not bad, considering.

 

[member 3289]

Bad nights for both at the end of the day.

Bellator in particular went up against two NCAA games and the Canelo/ggg replay. Stiff competition

UFC was on a different night and a different channel than usual, with a pretty crappy card that had a last-minute main event change.

Worse for Bellator.

 

[Clappin'Daddys]

UFC was on a different night and a different channel than usual, with a pretty crappy card that had a last-minute main event change.

Worse for Bellator.

That's why I said bad nights.

It was bad for mma through and through. Ufc went up against one college football game. Bellator went up against two and a boxing match.

Mma simply can't compete with football.

I was impressed how much dvr shot up though. Bellator had like a 40% increase after dvr