UFC Fight Night 17 came out swinging on Saturday night and garnered the #1 spot among men 18-34 and 18-49. The Spike telecast drew 462,000 men 18-34 and 869,000 men 18-49 for a combined draw of 1,331,000 and a 1.3 rating.

The event from the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, averaged an audience of 1.7 million viewers with a peak of 2.0 million during Joe Lauzon’s battle with Jeremy Stephens in the main event.

While Fight Night 17 had a lower viewer average than December's Fight Night 16 (which averaged 1.9 million viewers) it should be noted that FN17 suffered a last-minute change to the main event.

Still, those numbers were enough to sack the gang at ESPN in key demographics who went to the boards with college basketball telecasts of Indiana against Michigan State and UConn’s showdown with Michigan.

Compared with the same time period from a year ago, UFC Fight Night was up triple digits in key demographics; +319% in Men 18-49, +203% in Persons 18-49, +214% in Men 18-34, and +152% among average audience according to UFC.com.

Not too shabby.

For complete results and coverage of "Lauzon vs. Stephens" go here and here.