Ratings Report: UFC 179 Prelims Bring In Modest Viewership

The incomparable, illustrious, Dave Meltzer of MMAFighting.com has, once again, brought forth his infinite wisdom on UFC television ratings.

Here’s his report for Saturday’s Prelims on Fox Sports 1:

Bucking monstrous sports competition, the UFC 179 prelims did 536,000 viewers, the second-lowest audience for that type of show for prelims since the move to Fox Sports 1.

The two-hour show was without a marquee star on the undercard with William “Patolino” Macario vs Neil Magny as the main event. But the difference was more the competition with a World Series game and two major college football games going head-to-head. It fell from the 698,000 on the Sept. 27 show which had Dominick Cruz’s return, but was up from the record-low 436,000 for the prelims before UFC 177.

The big competition was the World Series, which did 10.7 million viewers on FOX. ESPN was broadcasting No. 3 ranked Ole Miss vs. No. 24 ranked Louisiana State in college football, which did 4.9 million viewers, and ESPN 2 aired No. 4 ranked Alabama vs. Tennessee which did 2.6 million viewers.