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Bellator MMA’s first tentpole event of 2016, featuring Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 and Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie III, proved to be the highest rated event they’ve ever run, and by a considerable margin.

For all of the hand-wringing over Bellator MMA’s decision to book Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 and Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie III, the ironic enjoyment of low-quality MMA from the two feature fights, and for all of the furious post-fight debate over whether or not Kimbo vs. Dada should’ve been booked given the physical condition of the latter, there’s one undeniable fact out of Friday night’s event: A lot of people watched the card.

Sports TV Ratings reports an average of nearly 2 million viewers for Bellator 149, which makes it far and away the highest rated Bellator broadcast in the promotion’s history.

Bellator 149 averaged 1.964 million viewers on Spike Friday night from 9p-12:04a (didn’t see peak).

— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) February 22, 2016

Details on peak viewership and a ratings breakdown by time-slot will be known at a later date.

The previous highest average for a Bellator MMA show was approximately 1.6 million viewers for Bellator 138, headlined by … Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock. An average of 2.1 million tuned in for the main event, which Slice won by 1st round TKO.

Chances are good that last Friday’s card peaked during Kimbo vs. Dada 5000, which Slice won via 3rd round TKO. We’ll find out soon enough, but it’s time now to update the history of Kimbo Slice on cable television MMA shows.

Win vs. James Thompson (CBS) – 4.85 million (with 6.5 million peak)
Loss to Seth Petruzelli (CBS) – 4.56 million (with 5.5 million peak)
TUF 10 premiere (Spike) – 4.1 million
TUF 10 loss to Roy Nelson (Spike) – 5.3 million
TUF 10 Finale win vs. Houston Alexander (Spike) – 3.7 million (with 5.2 million peak)
Win vs. Ken Shamrock (Spike) – 1.6 million (2.4 million peak)
Win vs. Dada 5000 (Spike) – 1.964 million (peak unknown)

There’s still plenty of demand to see Kimbo Slice on live television, and that’s not debatable. This was a massive success for Bellator MMA, and it certainly highlights that their “freakshow” tactics work, as evidenced by this event, Kimbo/Shamrock, and while not necessarily a freakshow fight, Ortiz/Bonnar garnered plenty of interest and strong ratings on its own.

UPDATE: New numbers in for peak average viewership as well as the main event rating, per a Spike TV press release.

“Bellator 149 shattered viewership records for Bellator MMA, averaging 2 million viewers for the entire 3-hour fight card on Friday, February 19 (9:00-12:04am ET/PT), peaking with Kimbo Slice’s three-round brawl with Dada 5000 averaging 2.5 million viewers (11:16pm-11:30pm) and a 2.3 rating with Men 18-34. The main event featuring MMA legends Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock drew 2.4 million viewers (11:54pm-11:57pm).“

UFC Fight Night 83 went down last night (Sun., Feb. 22, 2016) inside the CONSOL Energy Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now it’s time to see who went home with the biggest slice of the Reebok sponsorship pie.

For complete UFC Fight Night 83: “Cerrone vs. Oliveira” results and coverage of all the night’s action click here.

The biggest sponsorship earner of the night was Donald Cerrone, who walked away with a $20,000 check from the sports apparel giant after choking out Alex Oliveira in the very first round during the main event of the evening.

See it again here.

Hopefully he gets to keep all of it this time around.

Derek Brunson, Chris Camozzi, and Joe Riggs each earned a $10,000 sponsorship check, while 16 of the 26 combatants only managed to get $2,500, which leads to one of the lowest totals since the partnership began in 2015.

Check out the rest of the payouts courtesy of MMA Junkie:

Donald Cerrone: $20,000 def. Alex Oliveira: $2,500
Derek Brunson: $10,000 def. Roan Carneiro: $5,000
Dennis Bermudez: $10,000 def. Tatsuya Kawajiri: $5,000
Cody Garbrandt: $2,500 def. Augusto Mendes: $2,500
Chris Camozzi: $10,000 def. Joe Riggs: $10,000
James Krause: $5,000 def. Shane Campbell: $2,500
Sean Strickland: $2,500 def. Alex Garcia: $2,500
Oluwale Bamgbose: $2,500 def. Daniel Sarafian: $5,000
Anthony Smith: $5,000 def. Leonardo Augusto Leleco: $2,500
Nathan Coy: $2,500 def. Jonavin Webb: $2,500
Ashlee Evans-Smith: $2,500 def. Marion Reneau: $2,500
Lauren Murphy: $2,500 def. Kelly Faszholz: $2,500
Shamil Abdurakhimov: $2,500 def. Anthony Hamilton: $2,500

TOTAL: $125,000

So, how are payouts determined?

According to the revamped payout structure (see it), the more fights you have combined with UFC and the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Strikeforce promotions, the more coin you have for your combat sports piggy bank.

And the less fights you have under the ZUFFA banner… well, the less you get. If you have a problem with the structure, take it up with UFC, not Reebok.

According to the report, fighters will also receive royalty and payments up to 20-30 percent of any UFC-related merchandise sold that bears his or her likeness. That’s a great way for the Internet “morons” to help the cause.

Arena da Baixada, a Brazilian stadium with a capacity of over 42,000 seats will host UFC 198 on May 14, which is expected to be headlined by Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic.

UFC 198 finally has a venue, and not just any venue, as Portal do Vale Tudo reported the event will be hosted at a soccer stadium in Curitiba, Brazil. Arena da Baixada, the home of local soccer team Atletico Paranaense has a capacity of 42,372 and was one of the stadiums that hosted the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

Curitiba, the hometown of the original Chute Boxe team which produced names such as Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio Rua, will host its first UFC event, which many Brazilian fans believe is long overdue.

Fabricio Werdum, who trains with former Chute Boxe coach, Rafael Cordeiro, at Kings MMA, will likely look to defend his heavyweight belt against Stipe Miocic on May 14. Middleweight contenders Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Vitor Belfort will fight in the co-main event of the evening.

Other standouts like Demian Maia, Matt Brown and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will also be on the card.

Back on Dec. 20, 2015, top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s bantamweight contender, Julianna Pena, was arrested for her alleged role in a bar fight in Spokane, Washington.

More on that here, here, and here.

“The Venezuelan Vixen” stopped by The MMA Hour to talk about her current legal issues, as well as to shed some light on when fight fans can expect to see her back inside the Octagon.

“I am still in a pending criminal case, so I cannot talk about it. But, what I will say, is that when it all comes to a head, I am confident that the matter will be resolved fairly easily. In the meantime, I’m just trying to focus on my fighting career and getting to my next fight. That has been my focus ever since. You live and you learn and people sometimes have to make some choices in life and you have to deal with it. I am dealing with it. When I can talk about it, I’ll be excited to do so, that way I can get everybody to see my points of view on the whole situation. But I cannot go into too much detail, I’m sorry. It has been hard to keep it in because I wear my heart on my sleeve and I am an open book that doesn’t have anything to hide. I just want to shout from the rooftop. But, I have been advised to lay low and let this thing blow over and let my lawyers handle it. It has been difficult but I’m trying to remain living a normal life in the meantime. People will come up to me and hide their balls and stuff, but, that is not what happened! It’s been a ongoing joke for the last couple of months that’s kind of funny, but actually not funny at all.”

Pena revealed her ongoing legal situation is the reason behind her UFC hiatus, but hopes she will be able to make a fight announcement just as soon as all the wrinkles get ironed out.

Unfortunately for The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 18 champ, her court date keeps getting pushed back and she likely won’t see a judge until May or June.

Pena — who missed all of 2014 with a knee injury — made a successful return to action by taking a unanimous decision win over Jessica Eye at the UFC 192 pay-per-view (PPV) event in Houston, Texas.

UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov opted not to accept a return fight at UFC 200 because that would interfere with the holy month of Ramadan and the Eid holiday that followed.

Apart from being a top contender in the UFC’s lightweight division, Khabib Nurmagomedov is also a devout Muslim. So much so that he refuses to compete professionally during the holy month of Ramadan.

According to a recent interview with riakchr.ru, Khabib was initially offered a fight at the landmark UFC 200 show in Las Vegas but rejected the offer when he realized it conflicts with Ramadan and the Eid holiday that followed.

“I could not take part in the anniversary tournament. When the UFC asked me, I realized it was that June UFC 200 is between Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. We will probably watch it on TV.”

During the month of Ramadan, able muslims are required to fast (no water or food) from dawn until dusk for a 30 day period. It occurs during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and commemorates the first revelation of the Holy Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. While Khabib is open to training during the tough conditions of that month, he is not prepared to fight at that time.

“So the first fight in April, and after Ramadan, we will have the second fight.”

This is not the first time that Khaibib opted out of a fight because of Ramadan. Back in 2014, the Dagestan native rejected a fight with Donald Cerrone for exactly the same reason.