The latest edition of the UFC on Fox drew a 1.5 overnight rating and 3.31 million viewers, slightly down from the 3.77 million viewers and 1.8 rating that the January edition of live fights on the broadcast network drew. The December edition of the UFC on Fox drew 3.41 million viewers and a 1.6 rating, pretty close to this weekend's edition.

The main difference between those two shows and Saturday's airing was that the NFL was in season for the two earlier shows. With football out of the picture, the lone sports programming on Fox has been NASCAR and MLB, neither of which draw the huge ratings that the NFL does. Fewer eyeballs were seeing the shills for the show, and as a result, fewer eyeballs watched the show. It's ratings 101, but you can't fault the UFC for that by any means. The show on Fox was largely entertaining, with the lone exception being the co-main event of Frank Mir and Daniel Cormier, which was a little slow and filled with clinchwork against the cage.

The show on Saturday was a vast improvement over the spring show last year, which took place on Cinco de Mayo and was overshadowed by the Mayweather-Cotto boxing PPV and drew just 2.25 million viewers and a 1.0 rating. The next Fox show is scheduled for July 27th, and will be affected by the lack of NFL. However, the MLB All-Star Game takes place just a week and a half before that show, and there will likely be plenty of advertising for the UFC show. The July show will take place in Seattle, and a main event hasn't been announced yet. 

[MMA Fighting]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.