Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) went back to Spike TV for a special encore presentation of UFC 110 to counter-program the Strikeforce and CBS "Saturday Night Fights" event from Nashville when the two ran head-to-head last Saturday night (April 17).
Score one for the boys in Vegas, at least in the key demographic of men 18-34, where the UFC garnered a 1.4 rating -- enough to outdraw Strikeforce at 1.26.
"Nashville" finished with an average of 2.9 million viewers compared to the 1.4 million average for UFC 110.
Originally airing on pay-per-view (PPV) back in February, "Nogueira vs. Velasquez" marked the Las Vegas-based promotion's debut "Down Under" at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Zuffa was rumored to make its own appearance in "Music City" in an effort to not only hurt television ratings, but to impact the ticket sales of its San Jose rivals. While UFC President Dana White later called the trip "all talk," there was little doubt the Octagon would be appearing on television in one form or another to counter program Strikeforce.
And it wouldn't be the first time.
Spike TV debuted UFC 94: "St. Pierre vs. Penn 2" to run head-to-head against "Shamrock vs. Diaz" back on April 11, 2009, and then put UFC 100 up against "Carano vs. Cyborg" later that summer.
What do they have in store for Strikeforce: "Heavy Artillery" on May 15?
Stay tuned...
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