Saturday’s UFC on FOX 22: VanZant vs. Waterson was the best performing UFC event on FOX in years.
Michelle Waterson’s first-round submission of Paige VanZant tallied 3,178,000 viewers, 14-percent better than last December’s 2,781,000 viewers for a card headlined by a lightweight championship bout between Rafael Dos Anjos and Donald Cerrone. Saturday night’s delivery is FOX’s most-watched UFC event since April of 2013 (3,742,000), according to figures from FOX Sports.
Saturday night’s airing peaked with a sizable 4,800,000 viewers from 10-10:15 p.m. ET during the main event portion of the telecast.
TRENDING > Holly Holm on Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey Title Fight: ‘It’s a Wildcard’
The FS1 UFC Fight Night Prelims averaged 679,000 viewers on FS1, down 2 percent from the 693,000 viewers for the FOX prelim card on the corresponding Saturday last December. However, in the A18-49 category, viewership was up 4 percent (338,000 vs. 326,000).
Aside from the pivotal strawweight main event, UFC on FOX 22 also featured Urijah Faber’s retirement bout. He won a three-round unanimous decision over fellow veteran Brad Pickett.
