GLORY 22 ratings: Daytime card in France draws 152,000 viewers to Spike TV

GLORY 22 was one of the kickboxing promotion's finest cards to date, but unfortunately several combat sports fans missed the live broadcast last Friday afternoon (June 5, 2015).

According to Spike TV, 152,00 viewers tuned in to see Heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven defend his title against Benny Adegbuyi. Also on the main card, Zack Mwekassa scored another insane knockout and Sittichai Sitsongpeenong emerged as the next Lightweight title challenger, winning the 'contender' tournament.

In the end, GLORY 22 (see complete results here) were the lowest ratings in the promotion's 12-card run on Spike TV.

It goes without saying that this is a tremendous drop off from the 517,000 who tuned in to GLORY 21 in May for the Middleweight title fight between Artem Levin and Simon Marcus. However, there is a major reason for that and it is largely because the fight card had a 4 p.m. ET start time in the United States.

That is not exactly the greatest or most convenient time to gather around the television and watch a kickboxing card. Most people are either at work or in transit during those hours.

GLORY, to its credit, opted to air the event live rather than tape delay, which is usually frowned upon by media and fans alike. Instead, it delivered its latest fight card how all fans expect it. So, with the six-hour time difference forcing the afternoon start time, it appears something had to give and GLORY 22 -- despite delivering on an action-packed card --became a victim of cirumstance.

Spike UK aired the card on Saturday evening, which was of great benefit to some of the English and European fans who missed the card on Friday.

Going outside of the United States has been very hit-and-miss for GLORY during its tenure on Spike TV. GLORY 13 took place in Japan and is the highest-rated card to date (659,000 viewers). GLORY 14 was in Croatia and featured Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and that one had 495,000 viewers. Then a card like GLORY 15, which took place in Istanbul, Turkey, featured a tournament with Tyrone Spong and Gokah Saki only had 354,000 viewers.

Those three cards were all shown via tape delay and all had varying degrees of viewership.

Despite the GLORY 22 numbers, there were some great fights and storylines that came out of France, including:

• Sittichai's incredible performance in the GLORY 22 tournament
• Josh Jauncey proving he belongs among the Lightweight elite, and
• Verhoeven showing once again the reason he is the GLORY heavyweight champion over the course of five rounds.

GLORY 23 will mark the promotion's stateside return and its first trek into Las Vegas, Nevada, on Aug. 7, 2015. The card will feature a Welterweight title fight between the high-flying and fan-friendly Raymond Daniels and No.1-ranked Dutch veteran Nieky Holzken.

Daniels was featured on two of the highest-viewed cards already and the fans have grown to adore him and his highlight-reel techniques. Holzen was also on two of the most-watched fight cards. With fighters the fans have tuned in to see before, a "Sin City" debut and a normal night time start, GLORY 23 should see the ratings return above the 400,000 mark.