MMA fans were treated to UFC 253 last weekend, which saw Israel Adesanya retain his middleweight title with a second round TKO over Paulo Costa in the main event.
A six fight preliminary card aired on ESPN 2 before the pay-per-view and unfortunately for the UFC and ESPN 2, it was the lowest drawing preliminary card in terms of viewership for 2020.
MMA Fighting reports that the show drew 523,000 viewers and a .18 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic. The six fights on the preliminary card saw Brad Riddell defeat Alex Da Silva, Jake Matthews defeat Diego Sanchez, Ludovit Klein defeat Shane Young, William Knight defeat Aleksa Camur, Juan Espino defeat Jeff Hughes and Damilo Marques defeat Khadis Ibragimov.
Up next for the UFC is UFC Fight Island 4, which is headlined by Holly Holm and Irene Aldana, with a five fight main card airing live on ESPN.
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