This past weekend, MMA fans were treated to the UFC Fight Night Newark card, which saw former UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Colby Covington defeat former UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler by unanimous decision in the main event.
The show didn?t bring in big viewership numbers, because MMA Fighting is reporting that UFC Fight Night Newark brought in an average of 680,000 viewers, which is the lowest viewership numbers for a Fight Night main card on ESPN. A contributing factor may have been the early start time, as the preliminary card began at noon EST., while the main card began at 3pm EST. time.
Other fights on the main card saw Jim Miller defeat Clay Guida, Nasrat Haqparast defeat Joaquim Silva, Gerald Meerschaert defeat Trevin Giles, Scott Holtzman defeat Dong Hyun Ma and Kennedy Nzechukwu defeat Darko Stosic.
It was the main event bout between Covington and Lawler that brought in the most viewers, with an average of 945,000 viewers checking out that bout.
A four fight preliminary card also aired live on ESPN and that brought in an average of 523,000 viewers. The bouts on the preliminary card saw Mickey Gall defeat Salim Touahri, Antonina Shevcheno defeat Lucie Pudilova, Matt Schnell defeat Jordan Espinosa, Lauren Murphy defeat Mara Romero Borella, Claudio Silva defeat Cole Williams and Miranda Granger defeat Hannah Goldy.
Up next for the UFC is UFC Fight Night Uruguay, which will see both the main card and preliminary card stream live on ESPN+.