UFC 237 turned in the lowest pay-per-view preliminary viewership number under the ESPN deal.
On May 11, UFC 237 took place inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Headlining the pay-per-view was a strawweight title bout between Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade. Namajunas was the champion going into the contest. Despite a strong opening round, Namajunas was dumped on her head in the second stanza and she was out cold. The bout earned “Fight of the Night” honors and Andrade doubled her bonuses with a “Performance of the Night” check.
UFC 237 Preliminary Viewership Average Revealed
The UFC 237 prelims brought in an average of 813,000 viewers on ESPN (via MMAFighting.com). The UFC 237 prelims featured bigger names than the UFC 236 undercard. Names such as B.J. Penn, Clay Guida, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira competed on the prelims, but UFC 236 featured a stronger PPV card.
The prelims fell short against other heavy hitters in the time slot. This includes NASCAR on FS1 (2,177,000 viewers), the Stanley Cup playoff game between the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues on NBC (2,091,000 viewers), and the Julian Williams vs. Jarrett Hurd junior middleweight boxing title bout on FOX (1,385,000 viewers).
MMA News provided coverage of UFC 237. Peep the homepage for results, highlights, and all the post-fight goodness.
