The UFC 183 preliminary card was watched by an average of 1,546,000 viewers this past Saturday night on FOX Sports 1.
That makes it the second most watched prelims show on the channel to date, second only to UFC 168: Silva Vs Weidman II which drew 8,000 more viewers back in December of 2013.
In addition the card peaked with an impressive 1,992,000 viewers during the preliminary ‘main event’ between Miesha Tate and Sara McMann which led into the main card on pay-per-view and proved to be highly entertaining with McMann dominating the first round after dropping her opponent with punches, before Tate (who it would later emerge had suffered a broken orbital bone) managed to stage a memorable comeback to win by decision.
The peak rating that the two woman’s bantamweight fighters delivered also qualifies as the highest for a UFC PPV prelim card on the channel so far.
All in all it’s been a terrific month for the UFC on FOX Sports 1 with UFC Fight Night 59: McGregor Vs Siver earlier in the month having pulled in record breaking numbers for the channel, while UFC 182: Jones Vs Cormier’s preliminary coverage also breached the one million barrier.
It’s just a great shame that both the extremely positive TV ratings and Pay-per-view numbers are likely to be largely overshadowed by the post-fight controversy surrounding the two showcase events that bookended the month due to Jon Jones testing positive for cocaine and now Anderson Silva for steroids.
