Bellator 86 Ratings Report: 812,000 Viewers Tune in for Sophomore Spike TV Show

Sherdog.com confirmed the viewership figure with an industry source on Friday, who also verified that the two-hour broadcast earned a household rating of 0.7 and a rating of 0.62 in males aged 18-49. Additionally, an immediate replay of the show netted another 319,000 viewers, totaling more than 1.1 million observers for the four-hour block.

The live viewership figure is a slight decrease from the promotion’s Spike TV debut last week, as Bellator 85 pulled 938,000 viewers for its two-hour premiere on Jan. 17.

Bellator 86 took place at the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. The event was headlined by a dominant welterweight title defense from Ben Askren, as “Funky” punished challenger Karl Amoussou with ground-and-pound for the better part of 15 minutes before the bout was stopped prior to the start of the fourth round.

Additionally, the broadcast showcased the Bellator debut of former Strikeforce champion Muhammed Lawal, who advanced to the light heavyweight tournament semifinals by knocking out overmatched Pole Przemyslaw Mysiala. Earlier in the evening, Ben Saunders, Douglas Lima, Brent Weedman and Raul Amaya all moved forward in the Season 8 welterweight bracket, besting Koffi Adzitso, Michail Tsarev, Marius Zaromskis and Jose de Ribamar Machado Gomes, respectively.