Even though Saturday’s UFC show was dominated by Brazilians, who took up nine of the 12 main card positions and all six in the top three matches, the lack of familiar American stars hardly hurt the ratings.
The show, from Fortaleza, Brazil, headlined by Fabricio Werdum’s submission win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira,. did 313,000 viewers on Fuel in the 8 p.m. to 11:20 p.m. time slot.
The show was notable for quick endings, mostly via submission. This gave Fuel the time to air not only the advertised six live fights, but also replay four undercard fights and made for a fast-paced and entertaining show in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
Of the 10 televised bouts, six ended in the first round and the other four in the second round. Eight of those wins were by submission, tying UFC 2 back in 1994 for the most wins via actual submission maneuvers in company history.
That made it the second-most viewers for any show in the station’s history, trailing only the March 2 UFC event from the Saitama Super Arena, just outside of Tokyo, Japan, which had the Brian Stann vs. Wanderlei Silva brawl, and did 485,000 viewers, blowing away anything Fuel had ever done.
The previous second most-watched show was the prelims to a Jan. 19 main card on FX show, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, which did 255,000 viewers. UFC’s previous event geared specifically for Fuel, the April 6 show from Stockholm, Sweden, headlined by Gegard Mousasi vs. Ilar Latifi, did 236,000 viewers in an afternoon time slot.