The UFC 244 Prelims on ESPN 2 this past Saturday drew 910,000 viewers according to Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily. It drew 495,000 viewers in the A18-49 demo.
The telecast featured Johnny Walker facing Corey Anderson in a battle of Light Heavyweights vying for a shot at Jon Jones. Anderson surprised Walker as he stopped the young, up and comer in the first round.
The event at Madison Square Garden is a precursor to the big main event featuring Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz.
The prelims, which tend to predict the success of the PPVs, missed the vaunted 1 million viewers which is an unofficial benchmark for event success. The last time a prelims recorded over 1 million viewers was July’s UFC 239 with Jon Jones headlining the annual International Fight Week event.
Payout Perspective:
The PPV buy rates and prelim ratings don’t mesh as they used to pre-ESPN although this time around you might assume that the number of people that paid for the PPV is comparable to UFC 239. The amount of promotion behind the BMF belt, selling Masvidal and Diaz as the toughest in the UFC probably equated to a big uptick in buys.
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