The Strikeforce: "Fedor vs. Werdum" main event broke a lot of hearts last Saturday night (June 26) when it featured top ranked heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko losing for the first time in over nine years to jiu-jitsu wizard Fabricio Werdum.
Just don't count Showtime executives among the legions of unhappy fans.
Strikeforce returned to its home base of San Jose in impressive fashion, garnering a peak household rating of 2.1 during the Showtime telecast from the HP Pavilion, according to an industry source. That mark puts it just behind Strikeforce: "Miami" and "Carano vs Cyborg" as the third highest rated fight card ever for the cable television network.
"Fedor vs. Werdum" also featured Women's 145-pound Champion Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos defending her belt against Jan "Cuddles" Finney as well as a middleweight rematch between Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith and Cung Le.
That's a lot of star power for one event -- which could explain the staggering 56% increase in ratings over last month's "Heavy Artillery" card from the Scottstrade Center in St. Louis.
Comparisons to Spike TV's replay of UFC 113: "Machida vs. Shogun II" are likely, but competing broadcasts are difficult to grade against one another when they exist on different platforms.
Spike TV is available on basic cable and can be seen in approximately 98 million homes. Showtime is a premium subscription service currently available in approximately 18 million homes.
For complete results and coverage of Strikeforce: "Fedor vs. Werdum" click here and here.
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