UFC Chile ratings beat expectations, return 870k viewers on FOX Sports 1

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) beat expectations last Saturday night with its UFC Fight Night 129 mixed martial arts (MMA) event on FOX Sports 1, returning an average of 870,000 viewers for “Maia vs. Usman” in Santiago, Chile.

Not bad for a fight card that cobbled together its main event at the last minute.

UFC Chile, which also returned an average of 254,000 viewers FOX Sports 2 as well as 256,000 viewers on the fOX Sports 1 post-fight show, topped the 2017 average of 795,000 with the help of a lead-in from the NASCAR All-Star race.

MMA Fighting brought word of the numbers on Wednesday.

UFC Fight Night 129 went up against the Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers NBA playoff game that pulled a whopping 6,827,000 eyeballs, along with the Badou Jack vs. Adonis Stevenson boxing event on Showtime that ranged from 312,000 to 535,000 viewers.

UFC will return to FOX Sports 1 this Sunday in Liverpool (details here).