The UFC and Bellator competed against each other in a TV ratings war on Friday, Sept. 5th, which ended with the UFC coming out on top.
The two promotions held their respective events in Connecticut, only six miles away from each other, with many MMA fans expecting Bellator to win its first ratings battle with the UFC, according to Bloody Elbow.
FOX Sports 1 aired UFC Fight Night 50 between 10 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) and 11:58 p.m. ET and drew an average viewership of 911,000 total viewers. Bellator 123 was shown on Spike between 8 p.m. ET and 10:45 p.m. ET and drew an average of 667,000 viewers.
The UFC event scored a 0.5 household rating in the 18-49 demo, while the Bellator event scored a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demo, Bloody Elbow reported.
UFC Fight Night 50's ratings were 12 percent higher than the average ratings for the UFC's previous 19 Fight Nights on FOX Sports 1, which was 814,000 viewers, Yahoo! Sports reported.
FOX Sports Live obtained an average of 299,000 viewers from 11:58 p.m. ET to 1 a.m. ET, which is 156 percent higher than its average viewership in September of last year.
The average viewership for FOX Sports Live for the whole evening (7 p.m. ET to 12 p.m. ET) was 654,000 total viewers and 405,000 viewers in the A18-49 demo, Bloody Elbow reported.
UFC Fight Night 50 featured Alistair Overeem, Joe Lauzon and other notable fighters, while Bellator 123 featured Patricio "Pitbull" Freire taking on Pat Curran for the featherweight title.
