Bellator 223, headlined by Paul Daley vs. Erick Silva, aired Sat., June 22, 2019 on Paramount Network. The broadcast came as part of the larger Bellator London event headlined by Gegard Mousasi vs. Rafael Lovato Jr. for the Middleweight title, which aired earlier in the day on Channel 5 in the UK and via Bellator’s mobile app.
Despite being a tape delayed broadcast, fight fans were clearly intrigued by the presence of knockout artist “Semtex” fighting former UFC brawler Silva. MMA Fighting reports that the broadcast averaged 386,000 viewers, the second best number of 2019 behind a massive Fedor vs. Bader card in January, which did a 697,000 viewer average.
The number also holds up well given the competition from live sports on the same night. The Women’s World Cup (soccer) did almost two million viewers, PGA Golf did 1.5 million viewers, and Major League Baseball did 430,000 viewers. One can only imagine that if the Gegard Mousasi fight had aired during Bellator 223 it would have done even better.
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