Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was back on FOX Sports 1 for a special Friday night “Fight Night” event, though most mixed martial arts (MMA) fans were not staying home to follow along with the UFC Fight Night 131 action inside Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York.
That means they missed the bantamweight grudge match between top contenders Jimmie Rivera and Marlon Moraes, which saw “El Terror” go down in flames to the punishing attack of “Magic” in less than a minute (watch the replay here).
UFC Utica drew just 517,000 viewers, according to MMA Fighting, making it the second-lowest return for a UFC prime time live fight card in history. To give you some perspective, the show was beat by the College Softball World Series on ESPN, the only major sports event running against it during that time slot.
Speaking of ESPN, they might want to avoid Friday nights when this deal kicks in.
The peak ratings came during the opening fight of the night, when “Smile ‘N” Sam Alvey slugged his way to a decision win against Gian Villante. In addition, the UFC Fight Night 131 “Prelims” pulled an anemic 322,000 viewers, the lowest number for a prime time preliminary card on FOX Sports 1.
For complete results of UFC Fight Night 131 click here.
Get the latest gear
