A record audience tuned into the debut of the Ultimate Fighting Championship on FOX.
Saturday’s Junior dos Santos/Cain Velasquez UFC bout earned a 3.1 fast-national rating and 5.7 million viewers on FOX, the largest television audience in UFC history.
The debut ranks as the most-viewed mixed martial arts or boxing telecast since Lennox Lewis/Vitali Klitschko in 2003 (7.0M, HBO), and the most-viewed telecast on broadcast television since ‘Oscar De La Hoya’s Fight Night’ opposite The Oscars in 1998 (5.9M).
The most recent martial arts telecast on broadcast television — Strikeforce on CBS in April 2010 — earned a 1.8 and 2.864 million viewers.
Among adults 18-49, the telecast drew a 3.0 rating. For some perspective, Game 3 of the World Series earned a 3.2 in the demo, also on a Saturday night.
Las Vegas was the top market for Saturday’s action, with a 5.3. Dallas (5.1), Phoenix (5.1), San Antonio (5.1) and Tulsa, OK (4.9) rounded out the top five.
(Saturday’s numbers from Fox Sports Media Group press release via TV By the Numbers)