On paper, UFC On FOX 30 had one of the best fight cards in the series history, yet it has happened up with the dubious distinction of being the lowest rated in it’s history.
Just 1,678,000 viewers tuned in for Saturday night’s four-fight main card, for an average 1.04 rating.
That was few enough to beat out the previous low point of 1,770,000 viewers recorded for UFC On FOX 27 back in January.
That card was headlined by Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza vs. Derek Brunson though, with a low key line-up featuring the likes of Dennis Bermudez vs. Andre Fili, Gregor Gillespie vs. Jordan Rinaldi and Drew Dober vs. Fran Camacho backing it up, so no-one was surprised at the lack of viewers on that particula night.
However, UFC On FOX 30 was comparitively stacked, featuring no less than three former champions, with ex-lightweight titleholder Eddie Alvarez heading into what was guaranteed to be an explosive rematch with Dustin Poirier, former featherweight champion Jose Aldo fighting Jeremy Stephens and former strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk battling Tecia Torres.
With that in mind it’s hard to see why the event performed so poorly, especially since there was little else on TV that night aside from one major league baseball game, re-runs and a Hallmark movie on cable, so that’s bound to be a disappointment for the UFC and they’ll be hoping that things pick back up again when they move over to ESPN in 2019.
