UFC Fight Night 82 drew an average of 1,317,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1 this past Saturday night.
That’s a strong number, the fifth highest for a ‘Fight Night’ event on FS1 to date, though it’s interesting to note that the peak audience of 1,467,000 viewers for the event didn’t actually occur during the main event between Johny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson, but rather a fight between OSP and Rafael ‘Feijao’ from earlier in the evening.
So, some viewers had tuned out by the time the main event came around which is a shame given the impressive nature of Thompson’s swift first round stoppage.
The UFC Fight Night 82 prelims headlined by Josh Burkman Vs KJ Noons also performed well, with 1,093,000 viewers tuning in to watch them on FOX Sports 1, the second highest rating for Fight Night preliminary card. Even the post-fight show enjoyed a ratings boost, delivering 535,000 viewers.
As to why the event proved so popular on the channel, it’s difficult to say for sure, but a lack of other major sporting competition on the evening likely helped, while UFC Fight Night 82 also had more pre-fight attention than most cards of it’s nature due to the fact that it was originally supposed to be billed as UFC 196 on pay-per-view before the main event heavyweight title fight between Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez was scrapped.
