Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) began its historic deal with FOX at the beginning of the year and just this past Wed., Feb. 15, 2012, held its first ever fight card broadcast on FUEL TV, which has turned into the unofficial UFC network.
The ratings are in for the UFC on FUEL TV 1: "Sanchez vs. Ellenberger" event , courtesy of Sherdog.com, and the show garnered 217,000 viewers for the three-hour broadcast.
For FUEL, a channel available in just 36 million homes, that's a smashing success. For the UFC, not so much.
The world's largest fight promotion's old channel, Spike TV, ran counterprogramming during the same three hour window consisting of repeat broadcasts of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 13 Finale and UFC Unleashed. Those shows together netted an average of 678,000 viewers.
All told, plenty of fight fans were watching UFC programming Wednesday night. Just not on the channel the powers that be would have liked them to.
UFC on Fuel TV featured a thrilling three round main event between Diego Sanchez and Jake Ellenberger. While "The Dream" was able to keep himself awake against the power-punching "Juggernaut," the hometown hero proved to be too much for the former Ultimate Fighter and took home the unanimous decision win.
Also in action, Ronny Markes and T.J. Dillashaw both picked up decision wins while Stefan Struve and Stipe Miocic each took home knockout victories. See who scored the Fight Night bonuses right here.
For all the information you need to know from the UFC on FUEL TV event hit up our results and live blog right here.