UFC Fight Night 81 drew 2.288 million viewers on Sunday night (10-12:40 am EST) on FS1 via Sports TV Ratings. It was the highest-rated sports cable TV show airing on Sunday night. The Prelims, which preceded the main card on Sunday, drew a big 1.767 million viewers on FS1.
UPDATED: Fight Night peak 2.464 million between the 10:45-11pm ET quarter hour during the main event. It drew 1.410 million viewers in the A18-49 category. The prelims drew 1.025M in the A18-49 demo according to Fox Sports. This, and the 1.767 million viewer rating, made the prelims the highest-rated non-PPV prelim event on FS1 in both categories.
UFC Fight Night featured T.J. Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz in the main event with Cruz winning the bantamweight championship via split decision. The main event did not start until midnight on the east coast and although no peak viewership has been announced yet one might assume it occurred during this overrun.
The prelims (airing from 8-10pm EST) featured Patrick Cote-Ben Saunders in the last fight before the main card. Cote won via KO in the second round.
Additionally, the UFC Fight Night Prefight show (7-8pm EST) on FS1 drew 312,000 viewers. Also, the Fox Sports Live on FS1 which followed the overrun of the main card drew 1.391 million viewers making UFC-related programming 3 out of the top 4 shows for sports cable on Sunday (NFL Countdown on ESPN drew 1.87M viewers via Sports TV Ratings).
Payout Perspective:
It was the second year that the UFC and NFL collaborated in promoting a Sunday night Fight Night from Boston. The UFC event served as a dessert for many sports fans after watching NFL Playoffs during the day. The main card ratings, which drew a 1.4 rating, is down from last year’s 2.8 million (1.7 rating) UFC Fight Night 59 which featured Conor McGregor. You might recall that last year’s event occurred during NFL Championship Sunday and that the UFC did an Embedded series to promote McGregor for the event. Despite being lower than last year, it’s a very good rating for a bantamweight fight.
This time around the prelims did vastly better than last year’s 908,000 viewers. The 1.767 million viewers were better than all of the UFC PPV Prelims on FS1 last year with the exception of the 1.9M of UFC 194. MMA Payout will update these ratings with peak viewership numbers later today.
Great number, guessing doing it Div weekend instead of Champ Sunday got them bigger prelim ratings. Champ Sunday final game usually ends around 10 so alot of people would be watching football instead of prelims.
Doing it Div weekend the Denver game ended earlier so more people could then tune into the prelims.
Making this a yearly thing was a great move by UFC/Fox.
And Kitch vs Fury drew 10m only in Germany.
Rizin drew at least 2m in Japan with almost no publicity.
If this is the best the UFC has to offer, its best just won’t do.
Reflections from Boston’s North End. Looking at the BJ Penn Comeback article before this 1 reminded me of the evolution of Zuffa as a Sports Entertainment business. Remember when the UFC added 155lbers after much debate? Now 155ers are arguably the deepest division of talent. BJ was the Golden Boy when he did multiple weight class shows/titles.
Reflect on the Fox Deal and how this was a title fight of 135lbers on hallowed ground where Paulie Pender fought Sugar Ray(the Garden will always be the Garden). HeavyWts were the support card. No PPV and Fox have grabbed the UFC to broadcast in pkg w/ NFL. Recall DCruz fighting in that WEC Blue cage that gave 1 the impression that you were watching a fight in a night club/ backyard? That is evolution. The weight classes under 170lbs have always put on the more technical battles/content/product. Now Zuffa & Fox are marketing them to max potential.
I was present in Melbourne, Australia for the Holm/Rousey Explosion. I heard D White at a press conference ask if there were any unsigned Aussie female fighers UFC worthy. I was not buying it. I will be 100 percent straight up as a combat sports fan from the Hagler/Hearns/Leanord/Duran era I was not excited about the Reebok clad Main Card. I wanted to see the man who did the flying ass plant on Fedor–Mr Mark Hunt that is it. MMA Royalty. I was there for a few undercard fights. The card of 193 was not special until the girls SHOWED UP for those last 2 fights. Unlike the 1st Australia UFC -110 which was HUGE. Those 2 Female title fights converted me. Not the 54K crowd. Not the local Aussie fighters on the undercard who honestly are just regional level content filler who do not need visas and expensive plane tickets to play in the Zuffa sandbox as guests.
Zuffa has evolved. $$ good for them. Now they will build the High Performance Training Center in Vegas. Pure business – the finance team has identified the No.1 revenue killer is INJURIES. This is cost control and ROI intelligence. Zuffa has evolved. Zuffa clearly is MOST like the WWE in business model and structure not the NFL, NBA, EPL or even Tennis where players pay their own way. UFC Talent will never be managed the way true sports leagues manage their athletes. That is fantasy. How Zuffa approaches talent development is that next level of evolution. My opinion, no one asked.
Very big number for combat sports on cable. This must be killing the anti-mma, pro-boxing crowd because PBC can’t come anywhere near that number on cable. Also, for all the people claiming FOX was going to pull out because of the ratings, this just goes to show you how it is clear they are going to get paid more when their contract is up.
d you are right, i would like to see what lame ass excuses the al haymon people bring up.
correct me if i am wrong isnt haymon losing money on every card he puts on. doesnt he pay for that air time ?
i am a long time boxing fan i grew up on boxing in the 80’s and 90’s boxing today is pretty much boring and crap.
with a few good fights here and there. i miss tuesday night fights.
@ Turd, yes, Haymon pays for the air time like the UFC did when they launched the ultimate fighter. The difference is that the boxer’s salaries are huge to cover, it’s not a healthy business model.
As for boxing as a whole I can’t agree more. I grew up watching the Rocky movies and followed Mike Tyson in his prime. Today’s boxing management is b.s. Too many belts with too many fake champions fighting cans without ever fighting each other…
Imagine if GSP, Robby Lawler, Carlos Condit and Ben Asken were all welterweight champions, but would never fight each other.
NFL to the rescue!
PBC doesn’t need the NFL to carry them.
Canelo did more viewers on HBO against Kirkland.
UFC not impressed.
Hey Edi
Those are the most intelligent and articulate comments I’ve read here for a long time. Proof that Yanks do have some intelligence after all.
“PBC doesn’t need the NFL to carry them.”
You’re right, they need more like a miracle with their atrocious ratings and mountain of overhead.
“Canelo did more viewers on HBO against Kirkland.
UFC not impressed.”
Where do I begin?
Canelo DID NOT have more viewers- they averaged 2.146m, Cruz-Dillashaw did 2.28m. They were also on HBO, not FS1 anyway and that was with the first airing of May-Pac. Not to mention that Canelo is the biggest draw in boxing right now, while Cruz-Dillashaw are the furthest thing from that. Plus that was the best rating for HBO boxing since 2006. Hahaha. Boxing could never match these numbers on cable with a comparable matchup.
12,688 in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY to watch Deontay Wilder get a highlight reel KO, hours after 16,000 in the 02 Arena in London witnessed David Hayes return to the ring ending in a 1st rd KO victory
Uh ohh.
Wilder-Povetkin negotiations just began.
Big fight.
Hahaha. Thanks for acknowledging you lied.
What was the gate for that boxing card? I’m guessing it was less than half of what the Cruz-Dillashaw fight was.
Boxing is at an all time low right now.
Canelo peaked at 2.3M.
Way bigger deal when its on a premium channel.
Canelo also did 900K ppvs and made more money for one fight than any UFC fighter ever.
hey greatest i would be billing to be tmy left food that wilder couldnt draw flyes to shit on ppv. he isnt a draw.
the ufc makes more money than all the boxing promotions combined.
name me one ppv this year that will crack over a million buys for boxing.
thats right none.
hey greatest i would be billing to be tmy left food that wilder couldnt draw flyes to shit on ppv. he isnt a draw.
the ufc makes more money than all the boxing promotions combined.
name me one ppv this year that will crack over a million buys for boxing.
thats right none.
“Canelo peaked at 2.3M.”
Yeah, and Cruz-Dillashaw peaked at 2.4m. HAHAHA!! Are you having trouble counting? You are making my argument for me. How pathetic is it that a UFC fight in a weight class that didn’t exist 5 years ago, on a channel that didn’t exist 5 years ago, just beat every single boxing fight on cable for roughly the past 10 years? Really sad.
“Way bigger deal when its on a premium channel.”
Obviously not true because boxing does its best cable ratings on premium channels. They can’t draw crap outside of it.
“:Canelo also did 900K ppvs and made more money for one fight than any UFC fighter ever.”
The event made less than several UFC fights did last year. Just because he is overpaid (not to mention co-promotes his own fights), doesn’t mean there is more interest or revenue being made from them. The two biggest draws in combat sports are Rousey and McGregor and probably 9 out of the top 10 are in the UFC. Goes to show you the sorry state of boxing these days.
Biggest draws are Pacquiao Canelo Klitschko and Fury. They all get paid 10M+ a fight.
“Biggest draws are Pacquiao Canelo Klitschko and Fury. They all get paid 10M+ a fight.”
Yet the numbers released prove otherwise, and you are yet again fabricating things out of thin air.
Pbc about to have a big event this Saturday
The word “big” gets thrown around very loosely. Haha.
i wonder how much money pbc lost last year on there shows.
They burned through half of their investment already with only horrible ratings to show.
D you got proof of that? Let’s see the expense reports and receipts before we listen to your claims.
This was already reported. You should do some research before you talk.
D is right, that was reported. Haymon had blown through more than half his war chest already.