As expected, aging veterans Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock were still able to draw a crowd at Bellator 138 on Spike TV this past Friday night, with an average of 1.58 million viewers tuning in to the event.
Better still, the event clocked up 2.1 million viewers during the main event which saw Shamrock take Kimbo down early the fight and threaten with a rear-naked choke before the former backyard brawler managed to escape back to his feet and quickly delivered a TKO finish.
This was a record breaking night for the promotion, up 340,000 viewers on average over the whole event compared to their previous best of 1.24 million viewers for Tito Ortiz Vs Stephan Bonnar last November, while the peak rating was up 260,000 viewers compard to that fight.
It’s numbers that even Bellator’s biggest rivals the UFC would be envious of, though it does still pale in comparison to the whopping 2.75 million viewers (peaking at 3.1 million) that Conor McGregor’s fight with Dennis Siver at UFC Fight night 59 delivered on FOX Sports 1 back in January.
Still, while Bellator’s main event might not have been the pinnacle of sporting excellence there’s no doubt that Scott Coker is bringing fans the kind of fun fights that fans want to see.
That trend is set to continue with Coker announcing on Friday that their next high-profile show at Bellator 141 in September will bring not just a title fight between current champion Liam McGeary and Tito Ortiz but also a one-night 205lb tournament featuring the likes of ‘King Mo’ Lawal and Phil Davis and several GLORY kickboxing bouts
