Per Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, UFC Fight Night 58 drew an average viewership of 966,000 on Saturday night which was the top FS1 show last week. The Prelims which preceded the event drew 626,000 viewers.
The 2 hour main card featured Lyoto Machida and C.B. Dolloway. Machida stopped Dolloway in the first round. Saturday’s event saw a 28% increase over last December’s Fight Night. It was the fourth most-watched UFC Fight Night in FS1 history. According to Nielsen it was the fourth most-watched Fight Night on the network to date in the adult 18-49 demo.
Saturday’s main card reflected an increase from UFC Fight Night 57 from Austin, Texas that featured Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson. The Prelims for UFC Fight Night 58 were down from the Austin event as those prelims drew 777,000 viewers.
Payout Perspective:
The event this past Saturday capped off 14 televised Fight Night events this year. The average for this year was 811,000 with the peak viewership happening early this year with UFC Fight Night 36 at 1.4M average viewers. Saturday’s event had to be a pleasant surprise considering that Brazil cards do not generate viewership and Machida-Dolloway appeared like a mismatch on paper (and it was in reality).
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