UFC Fight Night 58 drew an average of 966,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1 this past Saturday night, peaking with 1,237,000 viewers for the Machida Vs Dollaway main event.
That’s a strong showing for the card from Brazil, pegging it as the fourth most watched ‘Fight Night’ show on FS1 to date.
The audience was likely attracted to the show by the promise of former champions Lyoto Machida and Renan Barao in the main and co-main events respectively, while overlooking the fact that their opponents, CB Dollaway and Mitch Gagnon, were not the high profile names we’re used to seeing them go up against.
Earlier in the evening the prelims did 626,000 viewers, while the post-fight show was watched by 325,000, more than double the number they achieved at the same time last year.
So, the UFC have managed to produce a relatively strong finish to their 2014 calendar on FOX Sports 1 with three events in a row now having surpassed the 900,000 barrier, with the TUF 20 Finale doing 989,000 viewers and UFC Fight Night 57 pulling 903,000 viewers.
They’ll now hope to continue that trend in January with UFC Fight Night 59 which features a headline bout between one of the sport’s rising stars Conor McGregor and Dennis Siver with a strong co-main event starring Ben Henderson and Eddie Alvarez.
