The final TV ratings are in for Saturday night’s UFC On FOX 24: Johnson Vs Reis event and show that an average of 1,996,000 viewers tuned in.
Headliner Demetrious Johnson will no doubt breathe a sign of relief when he learns that the slight improvement in the ratings compared to the overnights (1,740,000) means that the event is no longer the lowest rated in ‘UFC On FOX’ history.
Instead, that dubious distinction remains with UFC On FOX 21: Maia Vs Condit, which did 1,983,000 viewers back in August of last year, albeit with the caveat that it didn’t air live in all markets due to a clash with pre-season football.
Saturday’s show peaked with 2,874,000 viewers during Johnson’s virtuoso display of mixed martial arts against Wilson Reis as he successfully defended his flyweight title for the 10th time, tying with Anderson Silva’s UFC record.
Meanwhile, the prelims headlined by Alexander Volkov and Roy Nelson delivered 1,105,000 viewers on FOX, and the post-fight show on FOX Sports 1 did 125,000 viewers.
Overall the numbers for event still aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination, particularly with an intriguing woman’s strawweight fight between Rose Namajunas and Michelle Waterson in the co-main event and middleweight No.3 contender Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza also on the main card.
Ratings aside, it was an excellent night of fights though, and after a somewhat underwhelming start to the year for the UFC, hopefully that’s something they can now build on in the months to come.
