This past weekend, MMA fans were treated to the UFC Fight Night St. Petersburg card, which was headlined by Alistair Overeem scoring a first round TKO victory over Aleksei Oleinik.
While the main card would stream live on ESPN+, a six fight preliminary card would also air live on ESPN 2 and that brought in an average of 232,000 viewers according to MMA Fighting. The numbers were the lowest for any live UFC event on free TV and the lowest average viewership for any card broadcast on ESPN.
The six fights that made up the preliminary card saw Movsar Evloev defeat Seungwoo Choi, Sultan Aliev defeat Keita Nakamura, Alexander Yakovlev defeat Alex Da Silva, Shamil Abdurakhimov defeat Marcin Tybura, Michal Oleksiejczuk defeat Gadzhimurad Antigulov and Magomed Mustafaev defeat Rafael Fiziev.
One huge factor that could’ve played into the low ratings was the fact that the preliminary card aired in the early morning, as it began at 7am on the West Coast and 10am on the East Coast.
Up next for the UFC is UFC Fight Night Fort Lauderdale, which is headlined by former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Ronaldo Souza facing Jack Hermansson and the whole main card is going to be airing live on ESPN.
