TUF Brazil 3 Finale TV Ratings

The TUF Brazil 3 Finale last weekend drew an average of 609,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1.

That’s the lowest rating ever for a UFC event aired nationally on a Saturday night, though it’s not too far off some of the ratings we’ve seen for other UFC events on FS1 lately, such as ‘UFC Fight Night 40: Brown Vs Silva’ which did 655,000 viewers.

A little more positive was the fact that the prelims for the show did 560,000 viewers – a solid number for an undercard, though it makes it all the more surprising that the main card could only muster 49,000 more viewers, one of the shallowest inclines we can recall for a UFC event in recent memory.

So what’s the reason for all this?

Well, the fact that the UFC decided to air two events in one night (the other being UFC Fight Night 41 which aired on the UFC Fight Pass subscription service) certainly wouldn’t have helped either show’s ratings.

An explanation for the lack of audience growth throughout the event could partly be explained by some of those who watched UFN 41 earlier in the evening starting to watch the TUF Brazil prelims, but then tapped out due to fatigue before the main card.

That would be perfectly understandable as the TUF Brazil 3 Finale’s main card was light on star power with the main event between Stipe Miocic and Fabio Maldonado notable only for it’s curious matchmaking, while the only other fighter who’d stand out on most fan’s radar’s was Demian Maia who was coming off a loss and fighting an unknown newcomer.

It would have been interesting to see how the ratings would have been affected if the originally scheduled main event between Junior Dos Santos and Miocic would have gone ahead as planned instead.

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.