The ratings are in for UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Mir, and it performed quite well on what was otherwise a big night for pro and college basketball.
Last Saturday night was a busy night for basketball viewing in North America. The record-chasing Golden State Warriors played (and lost) a primetime matchup against the San Antonio Spurs in a battle of the top two teams in the NBA. Meanwhile, the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament was in full swing with round of 32 action across multiple networks.
If you were an MMA fan, you had UFC Fight Night 85 in Brisbane, Australia, which aired on Fox Sports 1 from 8 PM ET-1 AM ET (prelims and main card combined). The ratings are in for the event, and they’re quite good. Sports TV Ratings reports that the main card averaged 1.145 million viewers, while the prelims pulled in 766,000. Peak numbers clock in at 1.294 million between 12:15-12:30 AM ET.
This card represents an increase from the February 21st (Sunday) UFC Fight Night: Cerrone vs. Oliveira card in Pittsburgh, which averaged just 983,000 viewers for its main card telecast. Overall, this continues a strong start to 2016 for FS1-televised live UFC programming. Here are the average ratings for every main card UFC Fight Night, as well as PPV prelim broadcasts, in 2016:
UFC 195 prelims (Saturday, January 2nd) – 1,032,000
UFC Fight Night 81: Dillashaw vs. Cruz (Sunday, January 17th) – 2,280,000
UFC Fight Night 82: Hendricks vs. Thompson (Saturday, February 6th) – 1,317,000
UFC Fight Night 83: Cerrone vs. Oliveira (Sunday, February 21st) – 983,000
UFC 196 prelims (Saturday, March 5th) – 1,843,000
UFC Fight Night 85: Hunt vs. Mir (Saturday, March 19th) – 1,145,000
For what it’s worth, Cerrone vs. Oliveira did peak at over 1 million viewers.
The UFC’s upcoming schedule does not include a single Saturday night Fight Night on FS1 until June 18th (MacDonald vs. Thompson). In fact, the next 3 Fight Nights will be held on a Sunday, with the JDS/Rothwell (April 10th) and Overeem/Arlovski (May 8th) shows kicking off in North American daytime due to those cards originating from Europe.