UFC 157 Prelims: TV Ratings

Saturday night’s UFC 157 prelims on FX drew an average of 1.27 million viewers according to official figures released yesterday.

While that falls roughly into the line with the average viewership we’re used to seeing for the UFC’s preliminary coverage on FX it is a noticeable drop from the record 1.86 million who tuned in to see the UFC 156 prelims earlier in the month.

So, despite the level of interest there appears to have been for the main PPV card thanks to the first ever women’s bout in the UFC  between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche which headlined the show, that enthusiasm hasn’t filtered down to the prelim ratings.

The prelim card was fronted by a heavyweight clash between Brendan Schaub and Lavar Johnson which failed to live up to expectations, though earlier in the evening the FX broadcast had been witness to a ‘Fight Of The Night’ performance by Dennis Bermudez and Matt Grice.

Overall however UFC 157 appears to have been a big success with the pay-per-view believed to have down over 400,000 buys while the show was also a sell-out at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Top 5 rated UFC Prelim Broadcasts On FX To Date:

1. UFC 156 prelim ratings: 1,896,000 viewers
2. UFC 148 prelim ratings: 1.8 million viewers
3. UFC 145 prelim ratings: 1.6 million
4. UFC 144 prelim ratings: 1.5 million
T-5. UFC 155 prelim ratings: 1.4 million
T-5. UFC 143 prelim ratings: 1.4 million

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.