If Dennis Bermudez wants to know why Conor McGregor is the promotion's featherweight darling, he should probably look at the ratings for UFC Fight Night 46.
The "McGregor vs. Brandao" mixed martial arts (MMA) event, which aired online via Fight Pass from inside O2 Arena in Dublin, was also televised domestically on Ireland's 3e, part of the TV3 network, and set a ratings record as the most-watched sporting broadcast in the history of the channel.
600,000 total viewers tuned in to watch the fists fly -- with a peak of 340,200 -- averaging 257,500 eyeballs for the broadcast as a whole.
Sherdog.com has some perspective:
While those numbers may seem small by American standards, they have to be placed into context. The U.S. has a population of 313.9 million; Ireland has a population of 4.5 million. The broadcast gained 21 percent of the nation's television viewers that night. In the demographics for Men 15-34 and Adults 15-24, the broadcast scored 36.9 percent and 43.3 percent, respectively.
3e is the fourth biggest Irish TV channel, according to the report, behind RTE1, TV3 and RTE2.
UFC Fight Night 46 was also the biggest event ever done on Fight Pass, though numbers were not available at the post-fight press conference (watch it here). "Notorious" sent the crowd home happy with a first-round technical knockout win over "Ceara" (see it again here).
To see what all the fuss is about, be sure to check out our complete "McGregor vs. Brandao" live story stream with results, highlights, reactions, and more right here.
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