UFC 120 Broadcast Nets 1.9 Million Viewers on Tape-Delay

The show scored a 1.8 rating in the male 18-49 demographic and a 2.34 among men aged 18-34.

The event represented a decline for the UFC, whose 2009 event in England, UFC 105, earned 2.9 million viewers. UFC 95, which also went down at the O2 Arena, netted 2.4 million viewers for its tape-delayed broadcast on Spike TV.

UFC 120 was headlined by a middleweight showdown between Michael Bisping and Yoshihiro Akiyama. Bisping came out on top of that main event, earning a unanimous decision by using his jab and a stiff right hand to turn back the game Japanese judoka.

Also of interest was a pivotal welterweight clash between former WEC champion Carlos Condit and Englishman Dan Hardy. The Brit, whose last fight was a sound defeat at the hands of UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre, looked sharp in the early going, rifling off leg kicks and trading crisply with Condit. During an explosive exchange near the end of the round, both fighters threw devastating left hooks simultaneously, but it was Condit's that landed a split-second faster, knocking out Hardy and placing “The Natural Born Killer” squarely in the peripheral title picture.

The UFC will again return to Europe at UFC 122, which will go down at the König Pilsener Arena on Nov. 13 in Oberhausen, Germany.