The UFC returned to action this past weekend with UFC 249, which was headlined by a two pack of championship encounters as Justin Gaethje defeated Tony Ferguson to win the previously vacant UFC Interim Lightweight Title and Henry Cejudo successfully defended the UFC Bantamweight Title against former UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz.
There was a 6 fight preliminary card that aired on ESPN before the ESPN+ pay-per-view and that brought in an average of 1.154 million viewers according to MMA Fighting. The fights on the preliminary card saw Ryan Spann defeat Sam Alvey, Bryce Mitchell defeat Charles Rosa, Aleksei Oleinik defeat Fabricio Werdum, Carla Esparza defeat Michelle Waterson, Anthony Pettis defeat Donald Cerrone and Vicente Luque defeat Niko Price.
It was the final preliminary card bout between Pettis and Cerrone that brought in the most viewers, with 1.592 million viewers checking out that bout. A separate report from the Sports Business Journal reveals that 500,00+ people also checked out the six fight preliminary card through the ESPN+ streaming service.
Up next for the UFC is UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Teixeira, which will see the whole preliminary and main card stream live tonight on ESPN+.
