UFC Fight Night 45 took place last night at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was headlined by Donald Cerrone winning his fourth straight fight as he defeated Jim Miller by knockout in the second round.
According to Nielson sources, the main card on Fox Sports 1 had 640,000 viewers in the preliminary ratings and the preliminary card drew 415,000 viewers, which was also shown on Fox Sports 1.
Last night marked the third time in 2014 that the UFC has held a Wednesday night fight card on Fox Sports 1. The first time came in January with UFC Fight Night 35 and that fight card had 629,000 viewers in the preliminary ratings for the main card, while the preliminary card drew 220,000 viewers.
The last Wednesday night fight card came back in April for The Ultimate Fighter Nations Finale and that card drew 641,000 for the main card and 263,000 for the preliminary card. So the main card rating from last night was right in line with what the previous Wednesday night fights had done and the preliminary card viewership was up.
With the viewership from last night, the main card average for UFC Fight Night/TUF Finale main cards on Fox Sports 1 is now 842,000 in the preliminary ratings. When it came to the competition on cable last night, the night was won by Duck Dynasty on A&E with 3.7 million viewers and the ESPY Awards on ESPN had 2.2 million viewers.
Here is the history of the UFC Fight Night preliminary viewership in 2014 on Fox Sports 1.
UFC Fight Night 35: 629,000 (Prelims – 220,000)
UFC Fight Night 36: 1,400,000
UFC Fight Night 38: 936,000 (Prelims – 369,000)
TUF Nations Finale: 641,000 (Prelims – 263,000)
UFC Fight Night 40: 655,000
TUF Brazil 3 Finale: 609,000 (Prelims – 560,000)
UFC Fight Night 42: 1,217,000 (Prelims – 812,000)
UFC Fight Night 44: 702,000 (Prelims – 500,000)
TUF 19 Finale: 1,000,000 (Prelims – 774,000)
UFC Fight Night 45: 640,000 (Prelims – 415,000)
Stay tuned to TheMMAReport.com for more updates on MMA TV ratings.