Saturday night’s UFC 212 prelims drew an average of 732,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1.
That’s the second lowest rating of the year on the channel, with only UFC 210 having fared marginally worse with 723,000 viewers.
There are several reasons to consider when exploring why this was the case. For instance, the FS1 coverage started over 30 minutes late due to a baseball game over-running, while the prelims were also going up against the NHL Stanley Cup finals on NBC Sports.
However, it also should be acknowledged that there didn’t appear to be a great deal of heat surrounding the UFC 212 event as a whole, despite the Rio de Janeiro show featuring a fascinating pay-per-view headlining featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Max Holloway.
There also wasn’t much in the way of star power on the preliminary card, though the debut of former long-time WSOF champion Marlon Moraes against Raphael Assuncao in the ‘main event’ of this portion of the show was an intriguing match-up for hardcore fans.
Due to the baseball over-run, the UFC 212 pre-fight show also suffered in the ratings, being moved to FS2 where it did just 68,000 viewers, while the post-fight show on FS1 drew 113,000 viewers – down steeply from the 329,000 that tuned in for the same coverage of UFC 211 last month.
