The television audience numbers are in for this past weekends Bellator 58 and Strikeforce Challengers 20 events.
Bellator came out the winner, statistically by more than doubling the number of viewers from their previous event for this past Saturday’s (Nov. 19) Bellator 58 event bringing in an audience of 269,000 viewers on MTV2. The previous event, Bellator 57, took place on Nov 12 and only pulled in an audience of 129,000.
Strikeforce saw it’s audience dip, averaging an audience of 143,000 viewers for Strikeforce Challengers 20, which took place on Friday, Nov. 18 at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. The previous Challengers event, SF 19 on Sept. 23, pulled in an audience of 203,000 viewers, showing a significant decline in viewer numbers for this event.
Bellator 58 featured a lightweight title fight between Eddie Alvarez and season four tournament winner Michael Chandler, as well as a non-title match featuring middleweight champ Hector Lombard vs. Shark Fights Trevor Prangley. Chandler and Alvarez would have a very exciting four round bout with Chandler defeating the champ in the fourth round. While Lombard would increase his undefeated streak to 25 matches by earning a second round TKO over Prangley.
SF Challengers 20 was headlined by a bout between Antwain Britt, who was making his debut at 185 lbs, and Lumumba Sayers. Sayers would spoil the former light heavyweights divisional debut by scoring a 28-second KO. The co-main event saw female fighter Ronda Rousey finish her fourth opponent in under a minute with an armbar, by submitting Canadian fighter Julia Budd in their match.
Props to Sherdog.com for the viewer audience numbers.