The dark cloud of losing the heavyweight title fight and having what was originally UFC 196 moved off pay-per-view turned into a silver lining for Fox Sports 1, which had one of its most successful nights of UFC programming on Saturday.
The main card, headlined by Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson's surprising first round TKO of former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks, averaged 1,317,000 viewers between 10 p.m. and 1:01 a.m. That number made it the fifth most-watched Fight Night since the launch of Fox Sports 1. The actual peak rating came early, with the Ovince Saint Preux decision over Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante doing 1,467,000 viewers.
The prelims, airing from 8-10 p.m. and headlined by Joshua Burkman vs. K.J. Noons averaged 1,093,000 viewers, which was the second largest for prelims for a Fight Night show in station history. The only prelims to top it were the Jan. 17 show prelims before the T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz fight, which did 1,767,000 viewers.
The post-fight show did 535,000 viewers, an all-time record for a pure post-fight show that wasn't a post fight show that combined with Fox Sports Live.
LINK: UFC Fight Night 82: Thompson vs. Hendricks finishes No. 5 in Fight Night ratings history
