Bellator 114 drew an average of 711,000 viewers this past Friday night on Spike TV.
That’s up 204,000 viewers from last week’s event which marked a season low, so that will no doubt bring a sigh of relief over at Bellator HQ, while breaching the 700,000 mark is also good news.
The only downside is that the peak for the show was only 11,000 higher than the previous week at 882,000 viewers, coming during the main event which saw middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko successfully defend his title.
That suggests that perhaps Shlemenko isn’t a big draw for Bellator yet, but he’s certainly on the right track with three successful title defenses and a number of decisive finishes to his name, so it was a good move for the promotion to secure him to a new multi-fight deal back in February.
The night after Bellator’s show, World Series Of Fighting 9 took place on NBC Sports and drew 242,000 viewers.
That’s the second highest rating for WSOF to date, with only WSOF 4: Spong Vs DeAnda doing better with 264,000 viewers last year.
By WSOF standards it’s a solid number, but given this was the promotion’s most stacked card to date with notable ex-UFC stars Rousimar Palhares and Yushin Okami both making their debuts and two title fights on tap, it’s hard not to see it as a disappointment that this show didn’t draw a bigger audience on the night.
