Bellator Beats UFC In Total Viewer Numbers This Past Weekend

So Kimbo Slice didn’t fight at Bellator this weekend, but the show that announced his next fight against Dada 5000 beat the UFC in viewer totals….

Another busy MMA weekend just gone, and another double header from the UFC and Bellator. Taking their traditional Friday night spot, Bellator 145 went down with a so-so line up of relatively known MMA stars. Daniel Straus topped Pitbull for the featherweight crown, and Will Brooks retained his lightweight crown against Marcin Held with a decision.

Rather predictably, these weren’t the most watched fights. In fact the second fight of the main card, Bobby Lashley vs. James Thompson was the most popular of the entire card’s viewership numbers. On average Bellator hit 814,000. In comparison to the UFC Fight Night 77 show on Saturday, these are actually pretty decent numbers. Peaking with just over 1 million views during the Lashley vs Thompson first round TKO, Bellator once again proves titles and legitimate MMA skill mean jack sh*t for Scott Coker‘s promotion when it comes to their fan demographic.

Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson headlined the exciting, knockout filled main card from Sao Paolo, Brazil, but only managed to draw in 757,000 viewers, for the third lowest Fight Night card draw of the year so far. The fact that Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios were fighting on HBO, and also the College Football on CBS did not help the UFC’s Saturday night cause.

Aiding Bellator in defeating the UFC this weekend, at least in terms of viewers, were suprise announcements of ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie 3 and Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000.

Is this the beginning of the end for the UFC? Probably not, but it’s certainly good news for Bellator MMA’s quest to catch up to the Zuffa clan.