UFC 236 saw a sharp decline on average preliminary viewership.
On April 13, UFC 236 took place inside the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Headlining the pay-per-view was an interim lightweight title showdown between Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway. Poirier and Holloway went the distance but in the end it was “The Diamond” who captured gold via unanimous decision. In a “Fight of the Year” candidate, Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum clashed for the interim UFC middleweight title. Adesanya won the bout via unanimous decision.
UFC 236 Preliminary Viewership Revealed
The UFC 236 prelims brought in an average of 893,000 viewers on ESPN (via MMAFighting.com). The UFC 235 prelims last month brought in an average of 1,480,000 viewers. Matt Frevola vs. Jalin Turner capped off the preliminary portion of UFC 236, which was a decrease in star power from the Zabit Magomedsharipov vs. Jeremy Stephens showdown that ended the UFC 235 prelims. The UFC 236 prelims was also facing heavy sports competition in the NBA Playoffs, the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, and NASCAR.
SportsCenter served as a lead-in for the UFC 236 prelims, which took in 1,688,000 in average viewership. While that isn’t a low lead-in number, it pales in comparison to the college basketball games that preceded the UFC 234 and UFC 235 prelims.
MMA News provided coverage of UFC 236. Peep the homepage for results, highlights, and all the post-fight goodness.
