UFC Fight Night 101 drew 686,000 viewers on Saturday night on FS1 per Sports TV Ratings. The prelims which preceded the main card drew 654,000.
The main card (10:00-12:56 am ET) was headlined by Robert Whittaker taking on Derek Brunson. Whittaker won via first round stoppage. The event drew 342,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 demo. The 2 hour prelims (8:00-10:00pmET) drew 296,000 viewers in the adult 18-49 demo.
The ratings are somewhat surprising considering the UFC weigh-ins on FS1 Friday drew a very good 297,000 viewers which is above average for a weigh-in on the network.
Notably, the Kovalev-Ward replay on HBO drew more viewers, 834,000 (391,000 in A18-49), than during the main card. Also, the live fight of Lomachenko-Walters drew more viewers (761,000, 347,000 A18-49) than the live UFC event.
Payout Perspective:
It was the first time in a while that boxing on either HBO or Showtime drew better than a UFC event on FS1. It was a free preview weekend for the premium cable channels which may be a reason although I am not sure if the Nielsen numbers include those not subscribed. Still, good numbers for HBO, while the UFC event numbers were lower than the Fight Night average. It is interesting that the main card and prelims were so close in viewership numbers.
It’s not surprising at all. This card had almost no one of note on it(9 of the fighters don’t even have Wikipedia pages including Holbrook who was in the co-main event).
The weigh in factor was because it aired after the Texas/TCU Game which did 986k viewers.
Weak numbers for a really awful card. Was probably worst card of the year. It did lose the main event which was a big fight but rest of card sucked.
Believe the weigh in numbers were that high cause it came on after some game that did good ratings.
Lomachenko was promoted well, while I’m sure he would have did well regardless having the TV Premiere of Batman Vs Superman as a lead in does help.
The UFC sometimes gets helped with College Football, MLB Post Season & NASCAR races.
Bellator gets “helped” by Cops but they normally lose half the audience.
Cruz I have to disagree brother, I dont think it was good numbers for UFC or HBO Boxing. I think both were lower than what I would have expected. I think ratings this time of year seem to be low for all combat sports, I really have not see any impressive numbers save for the recent McGregor-Alvarez fight….being that Conor is the biggest name in prize fighting no matter the sport. I would have expected the Lomachenko fight to do at least 1m viewrs, again I think promoters in boxing have just lost the plot when it comes to creative advertizing. Considering how uneventful and unknown that UFC was, I think its numbers are actually a bit more impressive by scope.